Friday in the Octave of Easter
Over the centuries, Christians have been good at naming what I call "resurrection signs", events or people or other creatures that speak to the truth of the resurrection. The butterfly is a familiar one - the caterpillar making its own "tomb" in its cocoon, and then emerging as a changed being. Frogs and pelicans have been similar signs for Christians over the centuries. More personally, I think of moments when I have come close to despair, and the people and events that were like the hand of God, lifting me out of that despair and being resurrection signs. They reminded me that death and despair are not the end and that God always has one more surprise in mind.
Resurrection signs are so important because I think it is very difficult to comprehend, let alone believe, that Jesus rose from the dead. Death for us is something final. It is something that we have to deal with and confront because we cannot undo time and make someone come back. That finality makes it quite hard to see that perhaps death does not always win – that God’s Son rose from the dead.
During Holy Week, we move quickly from the reality of Jesus’ death to the reality of Jesus’ resurrection, from the reality of the old world to the reality of the new world. Today’s psalm (118) and reading from Acts (4:1-12) pinpoint this drastic change in worldview : the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The old reality was an apparently poor stone that couldn’t be used in building; the new reality is that stone is now the key piece to the whole building.
Because of how quickly this changes happens (instantly, on Holy Saturday), it seems that it is easy for something to get left behind. Some piece of the old, stays with the new vision, however hard we try. It is difficult to let go of the old standards when confronted with something so radically different from what we routinely encounter.
Therefore the readings through the Easter Octave, and indeed through the whole 50 days of the Easter season, we are given the opportunity to settle into the brave new reality of the resurrection. One of the ways today’s readings help us do that is by focusing on the reality of the resurrection and the real concrete events that happen because Jesus rose from the dead.
The reading from Acts (4:1-12), for example, mentions the physical and spiritual healing of a crippled person. The crowds cannot doubt that Jesus’ disciples continue to heal as he did, and that somehow Jesus’ own spirit has infused the disciples’ lives. Something real is happening in that community. Jesus’ death did not dispel the marvelous acts that God could do.
In today’s gospel reading (John 21:1-14), Jesus meets his disciples on the shoreline (not coincidentally the place where he first asked them to follow him). He takes them fishing, and then afterward cooks up a nice, hot breakfast of grilled fish. People have made much of the fact that Jesus is eating fish with his disciples after his resurrection, with good reason. Jesus’ body, post-resurrection, is not some ghostly figment of the disciples’ imagination. John points out that Jesus eats fish because it means Jesus has a body, and that body is real.
It can seem impossible – and yet this is our proclamation and our hope. The resurrection is the reality we live into particularly this Easter season.
Today, let us reflect on the Resurrection signs that we experience in our own lives - and ask God for the grace to be resurrection signs for others in need of God's blessing.
- Jana M. Bennett