20 Apr 2019
Gospel Reflection
Reflection & Dialogue:
The Risen Christ Centre of Christian life. Christian witness.
The Gospel (John 20:1-9):
The Scriptures foretold that Jesus must rise from the dead.
The Gospel reading today is about the experience of the first believers on the first Easter morning, leading to faith in the almost incredible belief that Jesus had risen from the dead. These three, Mary of Magdala, Peter, and the Beloved Disciple, were passionate in their devotion to Jesus. The first missioner of the resurrection was the woman Mary of Magdala. From that day onwards, the mission of all believers, female and male, would be to bear witness to the resurrection of Christ and to the Christian life that inevitably followed from belief in his resurrection and ascension to God’s right hand from where he is still addressing his Church.
The message of today’s second reading is that all followers of Christ should be witnesses to the new life in Christ in a world that often has a contrary message. There is fruit for reflection in this for us today.
“Belief in the resurrection of Christ and of Christ at God’s right hand is, in a sense, revolutionary.”
Belief in the resurrection of Christ and of Christ at God’s right hand is, in a sense, revolutionary. It calls for Christian living and Christian witness in an indifferent or unbelieving world. By union with Christ in baptism, Christians in a sense have died to one form of living, and now have a new life – in the words of today’s reading, “hidden with Christ in God”. This is not a life of detachment from the world or human society, no more than Christ’s life in God is. As Pope Francis reminded us early in his pontificate, the centre of the Church is Christ, not the Pope. Without awareness of Christ as head and centre of the Church, Christian life is disoriented. The risen Christ, now in glory, is the same Christ who has given us the Beatitudes, and other teaching. He is the Christ who has sent his Spirit on the Church and has directed it confidently in the mission to pagans beyond Judaism, countering unacceptable pagan beliefs and practices.
The Church in Ireland is now at a turning point. There have been the clerical, and other, scandals, and independent of this a falling away from Church attendance, not necessarily a lack of faith. There is also a growing, and vocal, secularism and anti-clericalism. Believers need to put faith in the Risen Christ, as presented in today’s reading from Colossians, at the very centre of their religion. Presence at Easter ceremonies could be a call and a reminder from Christ that all who believe in him are his witnesses, witnesses to his passion and resurrection. Through his death and resurrection, Christ had conquered “the world”; that is, all forces trying to take believers away from him. And his followers would be witnesses to this new age.
Fr Martin McNamara MSC