Faith and the Resurrection

Monday, April 22, 2019
Octave of Easter,
Monday
1st Reading: Acts 2:14, 22-33
Gospel: Matthew 28:8-15
The women left the tomb at once in holy fear, yet with great joy, and they ran to tell the news to the disciples.
Suddenly, Jesus met them on the way and said, “Peace.” The women approached him, embraced his feet and worshiped him. But Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to set out for Galilee; there they will see me.”
While the women were on their way, the guards returned to the city and some of them reported to the chief priest all that had happened. The chief priest met with the Jewish authorities and deci-ded to give the soldiers a good sum of money, with this instruction, “Say that his disciples came by night while you were asleep, and stole the body of Jesus. If Pilate comes to know of this, we will sa-tisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” The soldiers accep-ted the money and did as they were told. This story has circulated among the Jews until this day.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
The more glaring the truth becomes, the harder the liars will work to suppress it. The Jewish leaders left no strategy unexplored to quash the news of the resurrection. They even tried the ridiculous strategy of paying the guards so they’d testify that Jesus’ body was stolen while they were in deep sleep at their posts. The problem with twisting the truth is that one’s story comes out just as twisted. How, for heaven’s sake, did they know the body was stolen when in fact they were asleep?
Had Jesus appeared in public, his enemies would have seen, heard and touched him to their shame and embarrassment. But Jesus made no such appearance. He even came back to life without anyone seeing him rise from the tomb. He only appeared in person to two disciples at Emmaus, to some selected women, and finally to his apostles who were locked in an upper room. A public appearance would have been a good closure to the issue. Why did he do otherwise?
In choosing not to appear in public Jesus was consistent with his earlier decision not to come down from the cross despite the assu-rance of the Jewish leaders that they’d believe in him. The spectacular has never been the way of faith. The spectacular gathers instant followers but the following bursts easily when tested, much as a balloon bursts under pressure or under excessive heat of the sun. Faith, on the contrary builds stone by stone little by little every day, slowly but surely until seeing is no longer necessary. “Faith… is the proof of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Will faith also work on the obstinate? – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.