Easter Sunday—2002 Homily

As I read this Gospel during the week I was mulling over in my mind the various circumstances of Christ’s resurrection: of how it was the women who came first to the tomb, and the race between Peter and John, and the business of the cloths and so on.

Then I began to think about that stone which was rolled away from the tomb. It was a very large stone and we are told elsewhere that it would have taken two or three men to move it and, in any case, it was guarded by the soldiers, even if they were asleep.

At first glance one is tempted to think that the stone was rolled away to let Jesus out of the tomb—but, of course, this is not necessarily so. If God can bring about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead then passing through a stone, huge though it was, is small beer indeed.

If we think about this then we soon realise that the stone was not rolled away to permit the resurrection. No, it was rolled away to indicate the resurrection.

If the stone hadn’t been rolled away no one would have known about the resurrection. The body would be gone but no one would know. The soldiers were there precisely to guard it and to prevent anyone from taking a look inside. But with the stone rolled away its emptiness is there for all to see.

The fact of the resurrection is essential to our faith, but it is a fact that must be made known. And that is what the stone did: it made the resurrection known.

We believe in the resurrection because one way or another in our lives we have encountered the risen Jesus. We were told that he is risen by our parents and our teachers and our priests—this of itself did not make us believe in it, but it prepared the ground for that moment when we came to believe.

This is the job of the disciples, and our job today, to proclaim the resurrection. Merely telling people about it won’t bring them to believe in it immediately but it will prepare the ground, so to speak.

We can be that stone rolled away for the people around us. The stone indicates the empty tomb—it draws us in; it makes people look in and see that there is no body there; that Jesus has disappeared.

The disciples believed because at that moment they remembered what Jesus had told them, the lack of a body suddenly made sense because he had risen just as he said he would and just as the scriptures had foretold. The scales were lifted from their eyes and they believed.

Let us be that stone for others, let our presence here this morning make people wonder what we are doing. They might be washing the car, or getting ready for a day trip, or preparing to receive family visitors on this Easter Sunday.

But what are we doing? We are here celebrating the greatest feast in the Churches year, celebrating the greatest event in the history of the universe, celebrating the fact of our redemption.

We cannot make them believe, but we can make them wonder what we are doing. God will do the rest in his own time and in his own way.