Today’s readings: Acts 10, 34.37-43; Colossians 3, 1-4; John 20, 1-9.

There are choices in life we make freely and that we feel strongly about. There are other choices made for us in the face of which we may feel helpless. We can be dead or alive, depending on how strong we feel about ourselves, about life itself and all that it brings with it.

The gospel narratives this past week show that as far as Jesus’ fate was concerned, all decisions were taken for him by others. Judah be­trayed him and handed him over, the crowds wanted him crucified and Pilate shunned all responsibility and gave in to the mob’s thirst for blood. All along, Jesus seemed to be passive, on the receiving end. Yet this was definitely not the case.

It was Jesus who chose to give his life. Jesus’ death was not the outcome of violence and hatred, but the fruit of love. I will give my life for you, Jesus affirmed decisively, no one will take it from me. The great lesson of Jesus on the cross is that in spite of what others can do and inflict on us, the ultimate decision to die or to live rests with us and with no one else.

In Acts today Peter, with a re-found courage, addresses the crowds, proclaiming that after three days God raised Jesus to life and allowed him to be seen only by certain witnesses he had chosen beforehand. This does not mean that God discriminates, that He chooses some to be witnesses and excludes others. We all have eyes to see what is happening around us. Yet our reading of reality differs and we come to different conclusions, even when what we are experiencing is the same.

It is difficult to witness to a love that is stronger than death in today’s troubled world whose face is distorted by violence, abuse, death, and economic imbalance. Proclaiming year in, year out the newness of life of the risen Jesus becomes tiring in the face of evil that flourishes and the strength of belief that weakens.

Despite constant affirmation of its progress and prosperity, the West is haunted by the rest of the world, which is witnessing an unpre­ce­den­ted unrest. As Westerners, we find it easier to believe in ourselves and in the strength of our freedoms, than in life that comes from elsewhere.

The Jesus story could not stop at the tomb. With those who first went to the tomb, saw and believed, we too are commissioned to proclaim with renewed courage that God is the lover of life and never succumbs to death. In his letter to Colossians St Paul warns us not to focus on earthly things, as we would be missing so much. When reactivated, God’s grace will make us look up, not to ignore the grim reality but to discern more in depth and to grasp how God can never be silenced.

In the gospel, St John refers to Mary of Magdala coming to the tomb when “it was still dark”. In John, darkness contrasts with light, the chiaroscuro of belief and unbelief that alternate in struggles with our deepest doubts. It was still dark for Mary of Magdala on that first day which was to definitely turn the page of her life and that of all humanity.

She was still shattered after the death of a loved one whom she deemed her saviour. The tomb where she returned had sealed off the healing love she had so forcefully experienced. Only now she discovered that “the stone had been moved away from the tomb”, and that the end was only the beginning.

The empty tomb that she, Peter and John witnessed did not automatically imply that Jesus was alive. But that is what it signified for them. Their witness was not just a strong feeling, but a proclamation that filled the world. Faced with the myriad empty tombs around us, that same witness today gives us the strength and courage to makeJesus’ resurrection not only plausible but real.

This is the resurrection St Augustine experiences and proclaims when he narrates his break with the past in the Confessions: “I did not ask for more certain proof of you, but only to be made more steadfast in you”. Having believed in Jesus, and witnessing so much that disproves that he is still alive, it is steadfastness that we pray for and what we mostly need in a mobile culture that so easily distracts us from what is essential and that makes us forget what the Word forcefully proclaims.