FEATURE ARTICLE

Stan Chu IloWednesday, April 11, 2007
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Courtice, Ontario, Canada

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I HAVE SEEN THE LORD… THE AUDACITY TO HOPE


y prayer and wish for us all is that we encounter the Risen Lord, like Mary Magdalene so that we too can say like her: I have seen the Lord. Yes I may be sick but I know that it will pass away for I see the Lord in my sickness. Yes, I am grieving the death of a loved one but I know that because Jesus lives, I see his hand guiding my loved one to our Father's house. Yes, I feel alone and abandoned, but I see the Lord as my constant friend. Yes, I know I face some serious family issues today, but I see Jesus telling me that this phase will pass away too like his death. If you and I see the victory of Jesus in every moment of life, we can never lose hope. We can really and truly say, because we see the Lord alive in our history, the evils we see in the world will also pass away. Easter is the birth of hope for our world. Easter gives us the audacity to hope. Everyone believes that Jesus is dead, even pagans as Augustine writes in his commentary on the Gospel of John believe that Jesus died, but not everyone believes that he is risen. Christians are those who believe in the Resurrection for it is on the basis of the resurrection faith that we can live, move, and walk on earth and beyond the shadows of life.


I have seen the Lord. In these words of Mary are summarized the meaning of Easter. By his glorious resurrection, Jesus has given us a new vision of faith that God is not absent in our world, rather that he is dynamically present in every circumstance and at all times. 'Seeing ' does not refer specifically to a merely physical sight, but to a vision of faith, which goes beyond mere physical experience. The person Mary saw on the first day of the week was not a phantom or ghost, she was not suddenly enveloped in a photogenic hallucination.; the person she saw was not a resuscitated Jesus but a risen Jesus in his bodily glory. She had a new experience that changed her relationship with Jesus because of who Jesus became after his death.

The Resurrection account in the Gospel of John tells us that Mary initially thought that Jesus was the gardener taking care of the grave yard, because Jesus was now different. Why was she unable to recognize Jesus immediately, someone she had been with for three years and some few days back? The reason was that this Jesus was new. It was only when Jesus called her by name that she immediately recognized Jesus as the risen Lord. Mary's broken world of grief at the loss of Jesus, was opened, once our Lord called her by name. The voice of Jesus calling her by name shatters her world and opens a brand new future and a new vision. In that instance, Jesus gave her a new insight, a new vision of faith and she recognized him as Lord.

Mary did not understand why the tomb of Jesus was empty. She thought perhaps that someone had taken the body away; she did not understand the meaning of the words of Jesus during his earthly ministry: destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it; unless a seed dies it will not give birth to new life; I lay down my life so that I can take it up again. Mary came to the tomb to anoint the dead body of Jesus, but she experiences a new reality, the risen and glorified Lord. In the joy and ecstasy of this new experience, Mary runs to the other disciples to announce to them: I have seen the Lord.

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Seeing the Lord is a vision of faith that comes from God himself. The Resurrection is the initiative of God. It was not a story made up by the disciples. Those who saw Jesus were those who were looking for him and those who responded to the irresistible love of Jesus that refuses to accept 'no' as an answer. The response of Mary "I have seen the Lord" is the human response of faith that arises from being summoned by love and grace to the divine initiative. I emphasize that the Resurrection is a divine initiative because often as we have seen recently, in the fraudulent documentary by Simcha Jacobovici and James Cameron on the phantom discovery of the tomb of Jesus, many critics of the Resurrection faith, claim that the story of the Resurrection is the invention of the apostles. Just as the Lord explained the meaning of the Resurrection to Mary, so through the events of this Easter season, the Church's faith in the Resurrection expressed in the liturgy and in her preaching and teaching reminds Christians and the world that Christians do not worship a dead God. We worship and serve a living God, who is so powerful and so great that even death cannot destroy his only Son. The world today needs to hear that Jesus is alive so that they can see the meaning of our human destiny.

But our world is more fascinated by novelties than by truth. There are many Christians who think that the Resurrection is only a myth; there are some Christian scholars today who deny the reality of the Bodily Resurrection of Christ. Most of us have heard of the Gnostic document, the Gospel of Judas, which denies the truth of the passion and Resurrection of Christ. We have such fabrications as the Da Vinci Code, which should have been consigned to flames, if people of our times have the patience of checking things out for themselves. The message of Da Vinci Code is the same as the falsehoods published in 1996 in the book The Tomb of Jesus, which claimed that the bones of Jesus were found in Southern France.

All these distortions are attempts to lead people away from the truth that we serve a living God; a God who is personal and alive in the glorified Christ. But I challenge you today dear friends, put the claims of Jesus to test; check things out for yourself. Tell me of anyone who put his or her trust in Jesus who was shamed at the end. Don't we see every day in the world that truth crucified rises again? Don't we experience in our lives as Christians a power that is beyond us, which helps us in troubles that we say: "I wonder how I survived that crisis". Check things out for yourself, my friends. The liberation from the nets of sin, suffering, death, hatred, and the fear of the future is the meaning of Easter. Easter means that it is safe for us to believe in Jesus because with him, we are safe and secure. Easter means that it is safe to love even when love hurts knowing that at the end love will triumph. Easter means that it is safe to hope for better days ahead knowing that Jesus the risen Lord goes ahead of us. Easter means that it is safe to die knowing that death has been conquered by Jesus on this day. Easter means that the tomb of Jesus is empty because Jesus has become available for all.

When Jesus emerged, transformed from the tomb on Easter morning, something fundamentally new happened to the whole of creation. The Account we find in John, says that it was still dark when Jesus rose early on Easter morning. Note again that Jesus chose when he rose: while the world was still dark, the blinding light of glory emerged from the deepest darkness of sin and death (he descended into hell) to inaugurate a new creation. The normal course of history was changed and a new history began. The cycle of decay of death and sin was broken. It was the new morning of God's new creation. Easter celebrates the birth of the new creation of God. It was the first day of God's new week, the moment of sunrise after the long night of sin and death; the time of new meetings and a sign of new hope for the future. Because of the hope in the Resurrection of Jesus, we are guaranteed that evil shall never triumph over good; that goodness does triumph, that no matter how massive the weight we carry in life that we are assured of victory through Christ.

Acts of mercy and justice, the creation of beauty in this earth and the celebration of truth, deeds of love and the creation of communities of kindness and forgiveness-all these matter and they matter forever. This is what Jesus spent his life doing. His vindication with the Resurrection is a statement that the way of Christ is the best way; with him, through him and for him we shall do good and our good shall triumph over the evil we see around us. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, Christianity will be the greatest fraud, and all our deeds will have little or no significance. The Resurrection of Jesus means that the present time is shot with significance. What is done for the glory of God in the present is genuinely building God's future. Mary experienced on this Easter day the victory of God in Christ, and shared her new experience with the other disciples. These disciples in turn went about proclaiming the same message: Jesus is alive! Some of them have to give their lives for this truth.

It was no myth at all! Let us proclaim with our hearts, minds, soul and whole life: He is our Lord and God! We have seen him! St Paul tells us of what the Christian response to the resurrection of Christ should be: if then you have been raised with Christ to new life, seek the things that are above. Be future looking! Rise up from despair. Rise up from sin. Get rid of any dehumanizing behavior that destroys your life and destroys creation. Get rid of anger, hatred, lust, greed, unforgiving attitude, and pride for these destroy us and destroy the new creation and the new life we have in Christ. Let this Easter open new doors for us all: A new door of hope, joy, victory, and prosperity. May it give us new purpose in life and a new strength to live.

For us Nigerians and Africans, Easter should give us the audacity to hope for better days; and the impetus to stand up for truth, honesty, hard work, righteousness and justice so that we can reshape the broken fragments of our societies. Easter should remind us that it pays in the long run to say to the darkness: I beg to differ. May Jesus raise our country Nigeria from the sleep of ages; may he open our eyes to see what we need to do together as God's people to give better days for ourselves and our children in this period of election and transition.

Easter 2007, Homily given at St Therese Church, Courtice, Ontario, Canada (adapted to the Nigerian context)

Stan Chu Ilo, writes from Courtice, Ontario, Canada. He is the author of The Face of Africa: Looking Beyond the Shadows.