Peregrin Kálmán OFM, director of the Franciscan church in Pest, shares his thoughts about the mystery of Easter.
According to a Franciscan legend, on one occasion when Bishop Imre Szabó (1901–1976) was ordaining a priest in our church in Esztergom, the altar server took the chair away from behind him at a certain point during Mass, just as he was about to sit down. He did not even look back, thus in his full episcopal vestments he fell under the coffin-shaped altar, tangling himself in the floor-length altar cloths. Before we take offense at this Easter anecdote, let us imagine the Franciscans lined up in a row of cloaks before the altar, and the spectacle of them trying to fish a stocky, round man out of the altar cloths, restoring his episcopal dignity even in his vestments. The story surely brings a smile to our faces, allowing us to join in the medieval Easter laughter (risus paschalis). For at that time, the basic story that provoked laughter had to be part of the Easter sermon, because in this way the audience’s laughter could connect with the biblical Sarah’s joy of life:
God has brought me laughter, and whoever hears will laugh with me” (Gen 21:6).
The altar is the image of the holy tomb in every church, the place where Peter and John arrived at Easter dawn, where the Gospel of John uses the same expression for Jesus’ shroud as the Old Testament uses for the high priest’s garments; and the two angels whom Mary Magdalene will later meet there are present just as on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. The Lord’s risen body is the meeting of earth and heaven now in atonement; thus, upon entering the tomb and seeing the absence of the body, John became a partaker of the sanctuary of the promised risen Body in place of the destroyed sanctuary. This is why he recognizes in faith: Jesus did not “fall backward” by accident, with a wrong movement, the place of which must be concealed, but rather this very place must truly be shown, for here the glory of God was revealed in that the Son consciously took upon Himself the bonds of the underworld, yet was not entangled in them: God loosed the bonds of death and raised him up (Acts 2:24)—for they had not yet understood the Scripture that he must rise from the dead (John 20:9).
Photo: Pixabay
John notes—just as in Luke’s Gospel the shepherds did from the cave in Bethlehem—that he and Peter also went home. Then the beloved disciple testifies that the Master unfolded for them the all-transforming reality of the resurrection through scenes of encounter, and that recalling these leads the reader of the Gospel to the event of Easter as well. For the mystery of the Resurrection, just as it was for John, is not a concept that can be objectively defined for us, because it transcends our limits, but rather a life unfolding. We read in the biography of Saint Benedict: On the morning of Easter, Romanus found him in the cave and addressed him thus: “Arise, let us eat, for today is Easter!” Benedict replied: “I know it is Easter, for I can see you!”
The meaning of Easter is revealed to us in encounters: when Christ, having overcome every obstacle, reveals himself in the events of our lives, when we realize: it is the Lord; when we can muster strength for him and he, in turn, nourishes us with Bread and his Word, taking away our sin and transforming us into a confession of love, just as he did with Peter (Jn 21:1–20).
These encounters signify: since that dawn, it has been Easter, a heavenly feast of joy on earth, because in communion with the Son, we share in the Father’s heavenly bliss.
Via magyarkurír.hu; Featured image: Pixabay
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