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Vindication and victory of love

An Amazing Story. Upon learning from Mary Magdalene that the tomb of Jesus was empty, Peter and the beloved disciple rush to their master’s burial site. Peter sees the burial cloths and is dumbfounded. Unable to make sense of the missing body of Jesus, he stares at the wrappings in confusion. The beloved sees the same phenomenon, but is astounded. He believes Jesus is risen. 

Why couldn’t Peter believe? Because Peter, like many Jews of his time, had no conception of the individual resurrection. He believed in the universal resurrection of the dead on the Last Day. In the interim, Jesus, like the rest of humanity, would have descended to Sheol, the place of the dead. Hence, he expected to find Jesus’ corpse.

That the tomb was empty was not incontrovertible proof that Jesus had risen, for his body could have been stolen. Hence, Peter was distraught over the missing body of Jesus.

On the other hand, what prompted the beloved to believe? Like Peter, he saw the burial cloths and the linen that covered the head of Jesus rolled up in place. If Jesus’ body were stolen, the linen covering the head would first have had to be unraveled. Being rolled up in place — with the form of the head of Jesus still visible — meant that the body could not have been stolen, meant that the body had mysteriously vanished. Jesus had risen!

Profound Consequences. First, the innocent Jesus, who is unjustly convicted and executed, is vindicated by the Father who raises Him from the dead. So is Jesus’ mission to the lost and forsaken and message—that the Father’s love is unconditional and indomitable—validated.

Second, Jesus’ resurrection reveals to us that Love, not evil, has the last word. While Jesus’ death seemed to indicate that evil and death have hostaged humanity and that hatred and violence determine human history, His resurrection countered that God’s Love vanquishes all sins and evil and God’s Life prevails over death.

Third, the resurrection is a present and future reality. Because Jesus has shares His resurrected life with us life, we believe annihilation is not our final lot. However, the victory of life over death is not only a trans-historical reality; because Grace intervenes in human history, it is an ongoing reality. The mystery of the resurrection takes place here and now whenever and wherever love triumphs over evil, mercy over hatred, peace over violence.

Stories of the Risen Life. Edith Burgos has been searching for her son, Jonas, for more than two years now. In a recent Lenten Recollection I conducted, she said she has not and will not give up looking for her son. Woman of faith, she believes God is taking care of him, wherever he is, in ways she cannot. Edith holds on to her faith in a God who will ultimately vindicate the desparacidos, downtrodden and desperate.

Fr. Joe Blanco used to tell the story of Cita, a battered wife who out of spite and fear of her husband left him untouched when he came home dead drunk, vomiting and collapsing on the floor. After participating in Fr. Joe’s Akap Ka, Active Non-Violence Seminar, she would attend to her husband every night he came home drunk, wiping and washing him, assisting him to bed. Night after night, despite the verbal abuse and intermittent beatings.

One morning, she wakes up to find her husband having prepared breakfast for her, his way of making amends, showing remorse for his offenses and expressing gratitude to her. She believed in the power of Love. She believed in the power of the Resurrection — Love prevails!

Joanne, a teacher at the ERDA Technical School, shared in another recent recollection that even though her husband can provide for the needs of their family, she has chosen to teach in ERDA in order to support her aging parents, who have no one left to provide for them. But at a price. Her children, aged 1 and 2, no longer warm up to her. Just when she is so eager to see and hold them after school hours, “Nangingilala sila sa akin. Kapag binubuhat ko sila, umiiyak sila at hinahanap ang kanilang lola.” And yet she continues to work as a teacher despite being shunned by her own babies, in order to provide for her aging and ailing parents. Hers is the story of the supremacy of love.

The stories of Edith, Cita and Joanne are our stories, too—stories of the present reality of the Mystery of the Resurrection; stories of unconquerable Love quietly and steadily vanquishing sin in the world and reversing the ills of human history; stories of the present and final vindication of Love over hatred, Life over death.

Jesus is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Fr. Manoling Francisco, SJ is a prolific composer of liturgical music and serves on the faculty of the Loyola School of Theology.

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