The Mystery of Easter
A mystery is something that we see, but not all of it. It is like a closed door. You see the door, you approach the door, but what is behind the door, to where it leads, remains hidden until you open it and enter into it. The tomb of Jesus, his burial place was not a mystery to Jesus disciples, at least at first. They know where is was; they had been in it to place within it the dead body of Jesus, covered with a shroud; they closed it shut with a large, rolling stone door.
But when they returned to the grave site on Easter day, they could see:
- the grave was where they knew it to be,
- the stone door was there, but rolled away,
- the shroud and head-covering were there,
- the body of Jesus could not be seen.
They were now entering the Mystery of Easter
- the dead body of Jesus was missing,
- was it removed by someone, by whom, to where?
- Jesus was there, but not as a dead body, he was alive
- he was alive and present, but not as before, he was radically transformed,
- his existence is no longer subject to the laws of nature, as we know them,
Clearly, a new order of existence is being revealed. We have entered the mystery of something new. It comes to us
- his real presence could been seen or not seen, by some or all
- recognized and not recognizable as Jesus
- he could be there and then not there
- his voice could be heard
- his body could be touched and held
- yet it was not subject to the laws of nature as they are known
- he was not subject to space and time as we understand it
- his burial cloth held an image - how was it imprinted
- by eye witnesses
- by the Shroud
- by an act of grace where given
This Act of Grace was experienced by St. Paul, and many others down through the ages. This same Act of Grace, with its new laws of being, is still at work today. "For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches
finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened". Lk. 11:10
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