You could still see the wounds. When Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to
the women at the tomb, then the Apostles, the wounds of His Passion were still
visible. In fact, not only were they
visible, as if scars; but they were still present, as Saint Thomas learned
when, at his own insistence, he put his hand in the gash in Jesus' side, and
his finger in the holes in his hands.
Marvelously, however, they no longer caused Him pain, nor debility.
It is so hard for us to picture the risen Jesus, and
two thousand years of art give us too many possibilities for them all to be
true. Did He hover above the
ground? Was He transparent, or glowing
with a radiant light? Was He wearing
special garments, or anything at all?
His burial cloths, recall, were left in the tomb. Was His hair perfect?
We don't really know what resurrection looks
like. That makes Easter more difficult
than, say, Christmas, when we can all picture a baby in a manger. While we know we are excited about it, resurrection
is hard to picture.
We know He looked different. Right from the start, Mary thought He was the
gardener until He spoke her name. The
disciples on the road to Emmaus thought He was the only one in all Jerusalem
who didn't know what had happened on Calvary; then they recognized Him in the
breaking of the bread. And He was
unhindered by locked doors; that's different!
He also was somehow the same. The Apostles recognized Him when He came to
them in the upper room, albeit with some hesitation. Peter recognized Him on the shore from the
fishing boat.
He was the same Lord, but He was somehow different:
glorious, alive, and raised. Whatever
else was the same, and whatever else was different, it is clear His wounds were
still present and visible.
This should help us break the habit of considering
wounds to be evidence of the absence or disinterest of God, in which we have
been trained by skeptics and nonbelievers.
Precisely the opposite is true, as we who accompanied Him throughout
this past Holy Week know!
Pope Benedict XVI emphasized: Fixing the gaze of our spirit on the
glorious wounds of his transfigured body, we can understand the meaning and
value of suffering, we can tend the many wounds that continue to disfigure
humanity in our own day. In his glorious wounds we recognize the indestructible
signs of the infinite mercy of the God of whom the prophet says: it is he who
heals the wounds of broken hearts, who defends the weak and proclaims the
freedom of slaves, who consoles all the afflicted and bestows upon them the oil
of gladness instead of a mourning robe, a song of praise instead of a sorrowful
heart. (Easter homily, 2008)
And this is most encouraging news for all of us
personally. We who carry in our lives
and our relationships the wounds of sin, should bear in mind that this does not
"disqualify" us for hope of the resurrection! Because Christ's resurrection transformed the
wounds that sin inflicted on Him, we can yearn for the transformation
that it will bring to us, and our wounds. While we cannot be certain how we will look,
we have it on good authority that we will be glorious.
And so when you struggle to picture what the
resurrection looked like, go ahead and let your imagination run wild. Whatever attributes that it enhanced,
burnished, or otherwise made radiant in Our Lord, you can picture being
perfected also in you. For you will
appear finally as God our Father has pictured you all along, and that is a
marvelous image indeed.
Please know of my prayers for you and your loved ones
in this season of great joy. On behalf
of Father Gallaugher, Father Markey, and all here who make it their work to
make the Resurrection real in you and for you, I wish you a blessed and
glorious Easter. Truly He is risen,
Alleluia!
Monsignor Smith
