Acts 10:34,37-43; Ps 117(118):1-2,16-17,22-23; Col 3:1-4; Jn 20:1-9
THEME: You Need to Grow Up in Faith!!!
“Do you realize that you are a senior student now?” “Why do you still behave as if you are a junior student?” “Come on man! You should behave more maturely; you are no longer a boy.” These and many similar expressions are used to call to order, someone who is seen to be behaving below his level. I remember that my mum used to tell me and my junior brother: ‘You are no longer babies…Your mates in certain states already have three kids, and you are here playing sand games with kids (lol). These expressions are ways of calling someone to live up to an expected standard of his/her new status, responsible, age, or stage in life.
We see the same call in the readings of today. Christ’s resurrection brings this new expectation for the way a disciple of Christ should live his/her life. In the gospel reading, St. John tells us that early on the first day of the week, when it was still dark, Mary Magdala went to the tomb. The first day of the week, in the creation narrative, signifies the new day of creation. In this sense, John shows that Christ’s resurrection inaugurates a new creation.
In this new day (the beginning) of the new creation, we already see Mary Magdala, who is believed by many scholars to be the adulterous woman whom Jesus forgave her sins in Jn 8:1-11, paying a visit to Jesus’ tomb when it was still dark. This is the same time when prostitutes carry on their businesses. But Mary Magdala, having left behind her prostituting business, converted that time to a time of her visit to Jesus. When she was still in the world, it was a precious time for her prostituting business, but now that she has found Jesus, it became a precious moment to visit Jesus. She became the first witness of Christ’s Resurrection (Jn 20:16-18).
Peter and John confirmed Jesus’ resurrection and from that moment, their status-quo changed. The first reading reminds us of this trance of Peter, where he refused to eat something because for him, it is ‘unclean’ (Acts 10:916). It was a vision, inviting him to take the good news of Christ to the gentile family of Cornelius. Peter was still living in the old life of making differences between the Jews and the gentiles, the free ones and the slaves. Jesus, having called Peter to leave behind his old way of life and live up to his expectation as the witness of new life in Christ, invited him to take the good news to Cornelius and his household. If somethings or some people were considered ‘unclean’ before now, Christ warns Peter that that kind of mentality does not befit his new status as a witness of Christ’s resurrection.
At the end, Peter got up and went to Cornelius to share the good news with him and his household (Acts 10:34-43). Peter assures Cornelius that forgiveness of sins is no longer through the shedding of the blood of a goat or calf, but through the name of Jesus. And that this forgiveness of sins is for everyone who believes. Hence, Jesus’ resurrection not only brought Peter to full maturity as a witness, but also perfects the means of atonement for sin (no longer blood of animal, but Jesus’ name), the people who benefit of that forgiveness (not just the Jews but everyone); and the requirement (not being of Abraham’s generation by blood, but by faith in Jesus).
In the second reading, the same call to grow up in Christian maturity continues. St. Paul tells the Colossians that the children of the Resurrection have a new focus different from the old one. They are no longer to continue fixing their attentions on the things of the world but on the things of heaven, where Christ lives. Hence, the expected behavior for the Christians is not that which is preoccupied with the things of the world but that which is motivated by the things of heaven that is, by Christ himself.
If we believe that Christ rose from the dead, and that sharing in his death through our baptism, we are raised with him, we must therefore grow up in our way of living. We must live behind our old ways of doing things and of seeing things and see things from the perspective of God’s great mercy in Christ. We must live like those who are called to bring this good news of Christ to all nations, by the way we live our lives. There must be difference between our yesterday and our today. We must set aside all forms of segregations, divisions, material preoccupations etc and live in the new life which Christ has gained for us.
May the Risen Lord give us the grace to be able to live fully and everywhere as the children of Resurrection. May people who encounter us, experience the joy of the Risen Christ both by our words and our actions.
Fr. Chukwuezugo Nnamah
Wishing you and yours the joy of the Risen Lord.