Third
Sunday of Easter
May
4, 2003
What
is missing from the resurrection accounts?
Sometimes
we notice things by their absence. No salt in a menu that needs it. No other lights
in a room without windows when the bulb suddenly burns out. The empty chair at
a family table where a loved one has passed away. We notice things because they
are not there.
Did you ever notice – in all the accounts of the resurrection, all the stories
of Jesus appearing to the disciples – there is one consistent element that
is not there, not present anywhere when you expect that someplace it should be.
Its absence almost screams off the pages. What is absent is any mention of the
disciple’s failure. What is absent is any notice of Jesus chiding his disciples
for their sin. What is NOT THERE in the resurrection accounts is Jesus holding
the disciples in their sinfulness. No where! It is not there. Not present. Not
a word, not a hint, not a mention of that anywhere. Just again and again an invitation
to know forgiveness and to offer forgiveness. Only an amazing offer of peace to
disciples who knew that they did not deserve peace, but judgment. “Thus
it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the Third
day, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached in his
name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem.”
That’s the message of Easter. That’s the transformation that you and
I are called to live. That is the crucial word, the saving message of all that
we are about as an Easter people. FORGIVENESS… forgiveness, forgiveness.
The older I get, the more I am absolutely convinced that forgiveness is the key
virtue for our generation. All the Columbine shootings, all the experiences of
road rage and senseless killing, and dare I say even the Iraq war is due perhaps
to an unwillingness to let go of the pain that others have inflicted (whether
intentional or not) so that something new will emerge.
As finals approach, we are used to being tested over what we have learned. The
question of the gospel is will you pass the test of Easter? Will you live forgiveness?
Concretely, a few suggestions.
1) Don’t start with the enormous hurts of your life. (though if you can
do so, great…) Start with the small moments when you hold someone in un-forgiveness.
Start with the things you nag the other about. Or the things which you gossip
about. They are the most obvious symptoms of the areas which need forgiveness.
I was at a first communion party and someone brought up a person’s name
in the parish, and I immediately had 3 stories in my head about how that person
had not lived the gospel so well. And on subsequent reflection, I had 3 instances
where I had not forgiven someone – where I continue to hold them bound…
2) Offer even to ourselves the forgiveness we have denied ourselves because we
thought ourselves unworthy of God’s love. What are the scenes of this past
year that you replay over and over in your head –the “If only’s”
of your day and life – which keep you trapped in that moment and make you
beat yourself up over and over again for something that cannot be changed. If
Jesus can forgive his disciples for abandoning him at his hour of need, and NOT
EVEN MENTION IT, then, we can trust he will forgive the burden we carry in our
lives as well.
It’s the heart of the Easter message – that you and I would know a
freedom that comes from God’s mercy and love in our lives. It is what we
must allow ourselves to experience each time we gather around this altar - a love
that sets us free again.
You see, things are noticed by their absence. And if you see a dour Christian
running around, then you can bet they have failed the Easter test of forgiveness.
As finals approach, may we ‘do our homework’ – and let the Easter
message of forgiveness reign in our hearts and lives…