Gospel From Matthew 28:1-10 After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was white as snow. The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men.
Then the angel said to the women in reply,“Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said.
Come and see the place where he lay. Then quickly go and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee…Behold, I have told you.”
Then they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples.
And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
FOUR MOVING WORDS. On this Easter and of its gospel we have four verb words to concentrate on: Come…. See….. Go….(and) Tell. Come. See. Go. Tell.
These are the words from the Angel of God who descended from heaven to open the tomb and reveal its emptiness to the women disciples on the First Easter’s early dawn. The women had come there in bringing spices to be applied upon on the mummy wrappings of the Crucified Jesus, if even there was an outside chance that they could get near to the grave and ask permission to do it! These women were returning there, too, we should point out. Because, beforehand on Friday afternoon, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Cleopas were present at the death and burial of Jesus. Then, before the Lord’s body was placed in the tomb, they saw Nicodemus put 100 pounds of spices over Jesus’ wrapped body, and these women watched as Joseph of Arimathea opened his hewn cave for the body of Christ to be laid in it. The large boulder then had closed the tomb, the Romans had sealed it, and then put protection in front of it by many soldiers.
That was then, Friday afternoon. This was now, Sunday morn at dawn. It was really amazing how these women had come back to the site. Love for Jesus had impelled them to do it. There they encountered this event with the angel at the sepulcher, sitting upon its open entrance, with the soldiers all gone, who had been overwhelmed by his brilliant light. The angel then speaks these four commands to the women, who are Mary Magdalene and Mary of Cleopas, as Matthew’s gospel says. Come…See…Go…Tell.
Come. ‘Come, brave women to the tomb, come in closer. You were looking lovingly for the Crucified Jesus, but I want you to observe an empty tomb! I want you to come forward to realize an event beginning that will change all of history,’ says the Angel of God! ‘The Angel leads them, saying: ‘Come to the place where the Lord Jesus Arose from the dead. Recall back to how Jesus said He’d arise on the Third Day. Sunday is the Third Day. Today. You were good to be curious and interested on this site right here, right now. Come in closer.’
Let’s compare that Bible account to the two women to us people today. Many of us have known this first phase of interest, even by holy curiosity, of what is called “The Come Stage. We might have been led closer to see what might be a spiritual sign or a special experience to visit upon. Or been inspired to delve in more to what a Scripture or Catholic teaching might be saying. We go forward, as if bid by God or by some spiritual impulse, to be where a revelation may come upon us, or a faith experience can make clear sense, or an encounter of the divine or the holy be made verifiable. Yet we come. Or perhaps we come back with some interest in our heart or mind or will to the true meaning or reality of life.
Come is a favorite word of God to us. God invites humankind to know and experience Him, and for us not to remain in the dark, in the blindness of sin and pride. He says “Come.” I like that in the Easter vigil Hebrew Testament readings is says in Isaiah 55: “Come, you who are thirsty, to get satisfied….Come, you hungry, for the grain I shall give, and without cost, just for the coming and taking.”
Matthew has a message earlier in The Good News like it: “Come, all you who are weary, and heavily laden, and I will give you rest, and I will shoulder your burden, as you take My lighter yoke upon yourself.” Hosea has a similar message: “Come, let us press on to know the Lord, for as surely as the dawn He will come!…. The Lord says: Come back to Me, with all your heart…for long have I waited for your coming home to Me, and deeply living our shared love!”
Psalm 38 says something similar: “Come, taste and see, the goodness of The Lord.” Matthew has it on Jesus’ lips: as tells his fishermen disciples who ask Him where He is staying, so that they can hear more from Him. Jesus says: “Come and see.”
See. As you just heard, Coming leads one to the Seeing Stage. This the discovery time, the encounter, the revelation seen, the answer seen, the way of life pointed out and seen, the Aha moment!
So the women saw an empty cave next, but WAIT! This is Jesus’ grave and it is empty. What do we make of it?! The Angel says: He is Risen, just as He said would happen! The women see that a great change has occurred! Wow.
I think in our lives we have had these moments of stage two when we have noticed God’s sign to us—we have seen it with our hearts: Jesus is Real. Jesus is Alive. Jesus is Present. God is with me in Him. That kind of thing. Praise and Hallelujahs to God for helping us to see it! ‘Right? Amen?! Amazing Grace, I once was blind in my life, or in this needy area, but now I see!
I like the Becoming Catholic classes in parish life because we take note and wonder of people coming to see more in the light of faith. They get to this conversion place.
If you happen to be a newcomer tonight, or a fallen away person, or you are someone here who has not has this Aha time in your life, then ask for it to be coming in to view for you! Pray: Lord Jesus, I desire You and I need to see You in my life. I open myself for Your light of revealing. Father–Show me how my life can be freed from the tomb or the shackles upon me—and that with the Lord Jesus and His Spirit, I can be set free indeed! Pray John 8:36 “So if the Son sets me free, then I shall be free indeed!”
Sometimes people not only need to see Jesus but to see Him in His Church. Christ is the Church; the Church is Christ. But how have we seen this? Your transformation to seeing it well might come, really ought to come, in recognizing God in the Sacred Liturgy. God is to be worshipped, and Jesus has set the Way to be of Himself our Holy Sacrifice—for worship via Him, and in His Spirit, to the Father. It’s the Secret of Eucharist. The Church is just not some religious thing or institution. It is seeing and following Jesus as the Way, Who is the Bread of Life.
In an easier charity example, I know a woman who saw Christ in her life and working in her local Catholic parish with the outreach of a Habitat for Humanity project. Sponsored by parishioners, this housing renewal group offered to turn a woman’s old shackle into a new modern home. She consented, after seeing another of the group’s house charity works, and she was convinced to leave her old home for a time to give the team access for changing it. The Habitat group even paid for her to take a month’s vacation off to visit relatives down South. Then the time passed and the re-building team invited her back to her original house. She was stunned at what wonderful improvement was made on her home. I shared in her joy, for sure, she had a new life! Seeing is believing, they say. The woman trusted the rebuild team and they had done a marvelous job. It was a bit hard to note how it was the same house. But a deeper lesson in this Phase Two is how I think God has plans on our dwelling-place of ourselves, and of our parish community, upon us believing upon Him, and His Spirit wants to show what He can do in us.
With our aok. Our Yes to God.
Go. The Third Verb of this Gospel and what the Angel said is the word “Go.”
The angel was convinced that the woman had now seen the Empty Tomb and recalled Jesus’ prophetic word of His Rising—so it was time to tell them to go. Go to the apostles and share what you have seen here. Be as apostles to the apostles. Get the message to them—all is become new again. Jesus is Risen. You can have a restart back in Galilee, where it first all began, but now its Resurrection Time.
Mary of Magdala and Mary of Cleopas head out to go do what they were given to do.
It’s like us, friends, as we have all been baptized into Christ Jesus, with a mission for the Lord to go do. Preach the Gospel. That’s a definite do. So who are we to tell, and how do we tell it?
We may not have apostle friends hiding out in a Jerusalem Upper Room to go find, but the Lord has His witness for you uniquely to show, and people to receive it. I met a person who was returned to going to Catholic Mass, after a long absence and a lost adventure of going to a non-denominational church, and a lot of confusion and a bit of scandal there. Here she was in Silver Spring as a Mass goer. I helped her to confession and to remember how to pray and appreciate the Holy Mass, and then she said: But what am I to do for the Lord now? When I realized that she worked at a group home for needy adults, I said: Just be the hands and feet of Christ to them, since God already has found your area of ministry. Be a loving and strong Catholic to them! That’s what she did, and when she found there were Catholics in that home, she began to take them to Mass in a group home van. It was beautiful to see her Go part of life.
In a person who was recently in our RCIA program here in Burtonsville, he became a Catholic here at an Easter Vigil, even though he lived in Brooklyn, New York. He had grown up in the neighborhood across the street. He had work each week in Baltimore, so he stayed with his parents, and while doing so, he took RCIA classes and became Catholic. Now it’s two years later, and he is married to a Catholic and works in Fort Lauderdale. The way he lives his Go is to live a great new marriage to his wife, and by getting involved in his parish as a lector and participant in parish life things like its retreats and food socials. His family and past friends see him in a glad new life, and it’s a great witness. His workplace knows he is become a Catholic and in zeal. That is his Go.
But I can tell you that others Go may not be as dynamic. I know a person who comes regularly here on the weekends, and gets here and back by Metrobus. That will to pray and worship is his witness and His Go phase. Plus, he always genuflects when he enters the pew at church, acknowledging the tabernacle Presence of God. That is his “Go” for the Lord. And he is kind.
So, back to the gospel, the women agree to go tell the disciples. They are on their way when they meet Jesus Himself, and they do Him homage and wonder. This detail tells Me that Jesus is so pleased with people who do what God has told them to do—that He has a healing or grace prepared for them. I compare it to the blind man who had mud put on his eyes by Jesus and was sent to go to the Pool of Siloam to wash. When the blind man with Jesus’ mud on him does go to the pool, it was then that the man got his sight and blessing. Jesus just likes it when we get into our “Go” phase in the faith.
Now we have come to the Fourth Verb from this Gospel of Matthew verse. The angel has said: Come, See, Go, and……. Tell.
Tell. In the Gospel, the two women do find the Upper Room and tell the apostles how they had come to see what the Angel was showing, and how they had seen an Empty Tomb, then had gone and encountered a Living Jesus on the way to them. The result? By this telling, Peter and John go running to the tomb and see the evidence, and the Risen Lord Jesus time has now launched. The apostles will soon see Jesus in the Upper Room.
This last stage was talked about in our recent Parish Mission. God bless all of you who came to it, and then heard how, after we build relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and after we have had our healing encounter with the Lord, how then we are to go forth and tell and share our living witness of Jesus in any manner and any kind we can, all in an example of love, and as the parish to outreach this area of the world. The mission priest gave us some examples of how to do it. He was explaining how a listening evangelist is the better evangelist. We are not to just “tell” of Jesus and His church, as if the recipient of our message is a passive taker of all our convincing stories, but that we are to get into the story of the person we are addressing, and listen to them, to know what might be needed or necessary for them to be met by Jesus. It was a mature version of how to tell the Story of Salvation and our Love of God in Christ Jesus.
Telling has often been the weak part to the four things of the Christian. If we won’t tell our locality about our difference in living in Jesus Christ together, in the Church He founded, then the pews will get empty or our Rel. Ed. program get smaller. We need to do our part. Fr. Dominic said this Telling part four is mostly needing improvement in the lay person’s call, since the laity are 98 per cent of the Body of Christ. Don’t leave it just to the 2 per cent to do. But we priests will do a bang-up job with our full-time vocation work to tell the Good News.
When our Catholic Pre-K program dropped in numbers these last few years, forcing us to close it this Summer for good—I thought that one of the reasons it happened is not enough evangelism and word of mouth of Jesus’ Life here in us in the parish. The Pre-K was a great Catholic program here. But it was not fed with enough persons into it. We have as many boys and girls in the parish territory here that we have ever had. The schools are pretty full. I saw the new elementary school in the Bentley Park neighborhood going up, and no wonder—its where many families are living. Many children are growing up there. It’s 10 minutes away, but if we don’t tell them we are here, it’s 10 hours away.
Yet people are coming when being told about Jesus. We see it happening. There is life. Our staff is pretty vibrant to serve an alive parish. We are trying to add on a new associate pastor priest here this Fall, somebody maybe at least 35 years younger than me, to join up in the staff and clergy. We have lost our weekend priest helpers of Fr. Beal and Fr. DeSiano to retirement, and might lose another helper priest here, but it is time to add on a full-time Parochial Vicar, as I have asked to have one sent here, if at all possible. The Archbishop asked: Will the parish support it? I said “yes.”
After all, 11 other Montgomery County parishes have parochial vicars, so its time again you give us one, to help us immensely in this Telling Work of Jesus, that He is Alive and saving souls to eternity while turning lives around on earth.
Come. See. Go. Tell. That’s the model of the Church, right from the Easter Page of the Church. You heard it by the angel today, and in this homily.