April 4th, Easter Sunday

Acts 10: 34a, 37-43, Psalm 118: 1-2, 16-17, 22-23, Colossians 3: 1-4, John 20: 1-9

In today's Gospel we don't encounter the risen Lord just yet. The tomb is empty, but Mary of Magdala, Peter and "the other disciple" go looking for him there. Later that same day, Mary will encounter the risen Lord, but Jesus tells her, "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father." In a sense, many of us still cling/hold on to the earthly Jesus, don't we? At this moment in the Gospel of John, a transformation is occurring, and our understanding is challenged whenever transformation and change occur. We tend to want to embrace old familiar ways, rather than accept new and different situations that for better or worse, are always going to come along in our lives.

I can certainly imagine how Fr. Steve Dombrowski and Fr. Bernie Pietrzak must have felt as they prepared to begin new lives in strange, new parishes, leaving behind the love of their established "church family." It is bittersweet, uncertain, and yet exciting!

For me, the empty tomb reminds me that we are now called to be the "earthly Jesus" to one another, and take him wherever we go on our journey. It was easy to believe in the "earthly Jesus", while he walked among us, but it challenges our faith, calls us to action, for us "to believe who have not seen" him. Jesus is Risen! Let him live in you!

How have you reacted when you've come to the "empty tomb" in your faith? Who will be Christ to others, if not you?

Johnny Burnett, believer, servant, musician.