Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish

FR MICHAEL BIBLICAL IMAGERY

(Fr Michael Boakye Yeboah: Vice Rector of St Gregory Seminary, Kumasi-Ghana)

THE TOMB IS EMPTY

            At long last our forty day’s penitential exercises have come to a close with the celebration of Easter joy. Today, there are going to be a lot of celebrations in town, our country and the world at large. The Easter joy is knit together with sacred and secular celebrations. It should be solely sacred celebrations that portrays man’s deliverance from sin and death but can Christians monopolize such an infectious joy? Some of the things they do today in some secular places are unspeakable but can we deny them in joining us to celebrate the Lord’s triumph over sin and death? We cannot deny them a joy that continues to be man’s only hope in a better life after this one. It is our hope that as secular people join us to celebrate the Lord’s resurrection, one day they will leave the pubs, the dance halls and the beaches and join us in the church. This is a hope we will continue to nurse with prayer.

            No matter the extent we celebrate and the bliss we feel in our hearts, they cannot be compared to the joy that embraced the women who visited the tomb on Easter Sunday over two thousand years ago. We are told by the inspired writer that on the first day of the week Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning when it was still dark. When she sighted that the big stone covering the tomb had be removed, she had mixed feelings; but in her moment of indecision, she ran to report the incident to Simon Peter. Peter hearing such  news cast off the fear of hiding in the upper room and surged out with John the Beloved Apostle. The inspired writer gave us the details of the running speed of the two Apostles to the tomb. He did not give such a detail for the sake of its fictional nuances but to highlight a theological truth. Though a younger person may be filled exuberance and charismatic anticipation depicted in John’s speed, it takes the steady legs and a composed mind and heart of an elder like Peter to enter the tomb and ascertain the actuality of the resurrection. This Peter performed with elderly sublimeness. With his office as the chief Apostle he came to the conclusion that the tomb was empty so he officially declared that the Lord is risen and is alive. This was a news of great joy to the disciples of Christ.

            The emptying of the tomb comes with symbolism. In our day to day usage of the word “tomb”, it symbolizes hopelessness, end of life and filth. It is in the hopelessness of the tomb that made the medieval playwriter Dante state in his book Divine Comedy that ‘…in the tomb…abandon all hopes those who enter therein.’ Without Christ there cannot be hope for those who enter the tomb; it becomes the end of the journey. What naturally remains in a tomb is filth and bad odor. Jesus has changed the image of the tomb with his resurrection. He emphatically told his disciples that those who die believing in him will rise in glory.

            Jesus is our hope and he will empty the tombs of our lives from its filth of pain, sickness, and other life challenges. Jesus is our only hope for no religion, institution or earthly entity has the solution for a life after this one. Jesus is the only way to a better life after this one. And so, in the second reading the Apostle Paul will emphatically state that: “Brothers and Sisters, if then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth…” Keep this message of the resurrection close to your heart and like the Chief Apostle Peter in the first reading share the message of the Resurrection with other people who have not heard of Christ. Remember as you celebrate the joy of Easter, share the message of the Easter joy with those who secularly celebrate the Easter joy but have not given their lives to Christ. Tell a friend of Christ to today and that friend to another friend…. spread the Easter joy. OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP PRAY FOR US.