How do you feel about your faith this Easter? St. John’s account (John 20:1-18) of the experiences of those first disciples on that first Easter morning offers an important message: not everyone takes the same path to faith in the Risen Christ. In this account of the resurrection, the responses Simon Peter, the "Beloved Disciple", and Mary Magdalene are carefully interwoven. In their responses, the writer is able to show how faith in Christ's resurrection is generated in different ways.
Some people come to an Easter faith on the basis of evidence. And the process of gathering external evidence can take time! Peter arrived at the tomb second, but entered it first, looked around, saw everything and yet nothing. Then, he left. There is no evidence that what he saw generated any faith in him at all. All Peter took away from the empty tomb was a personal confirmation that indeed, Jesus' body was not present, just as Mary had reported. It took some time for Peter’s faith to develop because he required the additional evidence that came as the Risen Christ appeared to the Apostles over the next few weeks.
Other people come to their Easter faith in a relational way. The disciple whom Jesus loved ran with Peter to the tomb and arrived first, but he entered the tomb after Peter. He saw the same things Peter saw but his response was different. When he entered the tomb "he saw and believed." But he did not know what to do with his belief. He, like Peter, returned home. He believed Christ is risen. But what are the implications of the Resurrection for him? He seems to have come to understand the implications as he participated in the community of believers. Some think that it is this "beloved disciple" who wrote the gospel attributed to St. John. This gospel is characterized by both an understanding of love divine that is both deep and broad. Long after the first Easter, this writer remembered that Jesus had said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you," and "love one another, just as I have loved you…I have told you this so that my joy will be in you, and your joy might be complete."
Mary Magdalene represents faith formed yet another way. The empty tomb, rather than even hinting resurrection, saddened Mary with the thought of Jesus' body being stolen. Even the appearance of two angels does not break her sorrow. In fact, the voice and the appearance of Jesus do not at first stir her to belief. Only when he speaks her name does she believe. Mary comes to faith through the word of Christ and by that word she must be sustained. She cannot resume her old relationship with her Lord. When Jesus says to Mary, "Do not hold on to me," he wants Mary to understand that "the past is prologue." There is much more to faith than what has gone before. Mary’s path to an Easter faith is no more normative than any other. We don't know whatever happened to her, but we do know what happened to her message. It spread around the world until it reached us.
Not everyone takes the same path to faith in the Risen Christ. There is not one normative way. Some respond to a word, others to evidence, and others to a relationship. But whatever the path, and whether sudden or slow, it is always faith that removes the distance between the first Easter and our own.
I’ll see you in Church!