We are an Easter people, full of hope!

Something I like to do, especially around Palm Sunday through Pentecost, is to read the accounts of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus in all four Gospels.  They are all exactly the same in the final message—the message of hope—but different details are emphasized by the different writers because they were speaking to different audiences.

After my brother Tom passed away, I found a couple of journals he was writing to help him (in his own words) improve the long-term and short-term memory loss he sustained because of the length of time he was under anesthesia during his transplant surgery.  To help cope with my sadness at losing my ‘little’ brother, I used his journals as the inspiration to write a short (80 pages!) book about the special relationship we had and the memories we shared.  I’ve mentioned the book in this blog before and excerpted parts of it, in particular the titular entry that Tom wrote with no title, but that I named “The Man in the Boat”.

When I was through writing the account, I passed out copies to all of our remaining siblings and asked them for their opinions.  Like the four different gospels, each of my brothers shared their memories of the same stories, but with different little details.  Of course, each brother was quick to point out that while my tribute to Tom was spot on, I was dead wrong on some of the smaller details.  I don’t think so.  I just remembered them differently.

In the resurrection account described by John, Mary only needed to hear Jesus call her by name and she recognized that He was standing in front of her (John 20:11-18).  How is Jesus calling out to us? The answer requires us to look beyond ourselves.

When I put myself into the sandals of Mary Magdalene, the woman at Jesus’ tomb in John’s Gospel, I can relate to how she feels.  I too have wept because I couldn’t find Jesus at various times in my life; after my brother Tom passed away, when I lost jobs, when I lost friends, when I got worried about all of the violence and hatred in the world.  At those times I would question, “Where are You, Jesus?”  To which He would often reply to me in my meditations, “Where are you, Steve?”   

While ‘we are an Easter people’ (Pope Saint John Paul II), we are also a post-Pentecost people, which means that Jesus is calling all of us to continue the ministry He began.  Only after we recognize His call to ministry are we able to see what Jesus has been doing right there in front of us.  We’re healed of our pain, misery and loneliness not by sitting on our couches and complaining, but by doing something with our pain that helps others heal. (This seems to be a secret that too few people know, but it should be a normal part of Christian living.)

In Matthew’s account (Matthew 28:1-10), the women were fearful until an angel said, “Don’t be afraid!” and Jesus repeated the message.  Fear keeps us from seeing Jesus and from realizing the plan of redemption that God’s trying to reveal to us.  Like He did for Jesus, the Father wants to redeem our crosses and destructions by transforming them into new lives that will reveal Jesus to others.

In Luke’s account (Luke 24:1-8), angels said to the women, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead?”   We fail to see Jesus whenever we focus on what’s going wrong.  Only when we stop clinging to our limited and self-centered perceptions can we notice that God is leading us into a victorious future.

Listen! Jesus is calling your name. Your resurrection has already begun!