Easter homily 31 March 2024

1. What remains on earth of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion and death? Nothing but the empty tomb and the shrouded cloths that enveloped him as a corpse. He, the crucified Messiah, has risen, leaving the tomb forever and breaking down its sepulchral stone. By now even the tomb in which each one of us will be laid dead has two doors: one is the one through which they will bury us, and the other, for now invisible, he, the Risen One, has already thrown open for ever. Death for the believer, then, is not the end of life, but the beginning of true life; not a leap into the void, but the entering into eternity, that is, into God. Easter teaches us that death is a birth and a baptism. Birth because true life begins, the life that does not lead to death, but is life forever, eternal. That is why we commemorate the saints not on the day of their birth, but on the day of their death, which in Latin is dies natalis. If you truly believe in the Risen Jesus here on earth you know that you are like the embryo of a foetus gestating in the womb. By being born into this world and receiving baptism we become new human beings, adopted children of God in gestation for eternity where we never grow old.

Death is also a baptism. This is how Jesus designates his own death: "There is a baptism by which I must be baptised" (Lk 12:50). St Paul speaks of baptism as being "baptised into the death of Christ" (Rom 6:4). In ancient times, at the moment of baptism the person was lowered entirely into the water; all sins and all the old man remained buried in the water and a new creature emerged, symbolised by the white tunic with which he was clothed. This is what happens in death: the caterpillar dies, the butterfly is born. God "will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain, because the former things have passed away" (Rev 21:4).

2. Christians therefore believe in the resurrection of Jesus and yet no one has seen him rise. How he was resurrected remains a secret that will be revealed to us in heaven. History and faith hand down to us that Jesus of Nazareth was seen by all to die in excruciating pain, and then some hastily accompanied him to the tomb, certain that they had closed an affair that worried the Roman authorities and divided the Torah believers. It was thought that everything was now over, and instead it was the beginning of a new story that changed the history of mankind. The gospel says that it was still dark when, on the first day of the week, that is, Sunday, some women went weeping to the place of his burial and found the tombstone overturned. Once again God surprises us: Jesus was born in the dark of night in Bethlehem, a small village in Judea, and the angels give news of it to the shepherds, who are considered unclean because of their work, and therefore marginalised by civil and religious society.  Yet it is they, the last and the impure, who are the lucky ones chosen to see the born Messiah and then happily break the news to the people who flock to worship him.  Here in Jerusalem, it was women who with a 'journalistic scoop' gave humanity the incredible news of Christ's resurrection; women so little considered by society at the time that they could not even testify in court. God once again chooses the last, and this time women, making them messengers to Christ's disciples who in disbelief at the events of those days had given themselves away. All except two: Peter and John, whom these women reached and they, a miracle for the mentality of the time, believed their story and rushed to the tomb.

3. The story in the Fourth Gospel is the paradigm of our faith. Peter and John rush towards the tomb and John, although he arrives first, merely bends down and from outside takes a quick glance because, out of deference to Peter, he is waiting for him and it is the eldest who is the first to enter the tomb.  Simon Peter examines everything with great care and recognises the cloths that had wrapped Jesus perfectly slumped in place (this could be the present shroud of the Shroud), as if they still wrapped the deceased, and even the shroud, hastily embalmed with funeral aromas because of the parasceve, was in such a way as if it still covered his face, but Christ was no longer there. What genius! Our Redeemer is not to be seen as he rises, but leaves us traces that are signs for faith and provocative questions for intelligence. After Peter, John finally enters, the witness who narrates the event and, in lapidary fashion, sums it all up in two verbs: "he saw and he believed", which are the synthesis of the Catholic faith.

4. The evangelist John is always very profound and not easy to translate so one must pay attention to the nuances of this text where he uses several verbs, all of which can be translated as seeing, but each expresses a different accentuation: Magdalene sees (blepei which means to take a quick glance at, almost just noticing) the overturned stone; John arrived first "stooped down, saw" (parakupsas blepei) he too limits himself to an observation from the outside. Peter, on the other hand, enters and observed (theorei: this verb indicates a careful search) the cloths and regarding the sudarium our Italian translations write "not laid there with the cloths, but wrapped in a place apart". Finally John enters who had come first and - the gospel says - "saw and believed" (Eiden kai episteusen) which is a seeing with the heart and a believing that means trusting someone with total confidence.  

Why not allow ourselves to be provoked on our journey of faith? The apostles trust the women and go to verify for themselves: at first it is a glance, then by observing the mind reflects and deepens and finally the knowledge becomes a choice of love and fidelity. This is the path that St Augustine already indicated: 'I believe in order to understand, I understand in order to believe'. And going back to Augustine, Saint Anselm turns this admirable intuition into prayer: "Lord, teach me to seek you and show yourself to me who seek you. I cannot seek you unless you teach me, nor find you unless you show yourself. May I seek you by desiring you, may I desire you by seeking you, may I find you by loving you, and may I love you by finding you". An Easter of resurrection to all! +John D'Ercole

P.S. According to a growing number of exegetes and linguists, the translations we are used to do not faithfully reflect the Greek text of the Gospel. On the other hand, there is a particular exegesis of John's passage that also seems to me to be an accurate description of the theory of the body mechanically making itself transparent to the cloth. The Greek terms describing the posture of the burial cloths (othonia keimena) in fact indicate a lying down that can also be interpreted as presenting oneself sagged, emptied. Othonia keimena = the emptied shroud. As for the shroud, a perhaps more correct translation of the Greek text (entetylimènon eis ena topon) should describe the shroud wrapped in a unique position: that is, not flat, but three-dimensional, emptied and as if starched; therefore in its own right, in the same position it had been before, on Christ's face. If this were the case, it would explain perfectly why Peter and John, upon entering the tomb, had clear proof that the Master's body had not been reanimated (as had happened with Lazarus), but neither had it been stolen, either by friends or enemies.  And so they believed!  The story of the time, St Matthew narrates, is this: "On the next day, the day after the Parasceve, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered at Pilate's, saying, 'Lord, we have remembered that this impostor, while he was alive, said, "After three days I will rise again. He therefore orders the tomb to be guarded until the third day, lest his disciples come, steal him away, and then say to the people: 'He is risen from the dead. Thus the latter imposture would be worse than the former!" Pilate said to them, 'You have the guards: go and secure them as you see fit.' They went and, to make the tomb secure, sealed the stone and left the guards there" (Mt. 27:62-66).