Monday in the Octave of Easter
(Acts 2: 14.22-33; Matthew 28:8-15)
The behavior of the chief priests in the
gospel of Matthew could turn a saint anti-clerical. They pay to arrange the arrest of an innocent
man. They seek false testimony to condemn Jesus. They show no compassion for Judas as
struggles with a guilty conscious and less for Jesus suffering on the cross. After Jesus’ death, they ask Pilate for a
guard to prevent the abduction of Jesus’ bodies. And, in today’s gospel, they bribe the same
guard to lie about Jesus’ resurrection.
Because the veracity of these outrages cannot be confirmed, it may be
best to attribute them to the animosity between Christians and Jews at the time
of Matthew’s writing.
The last two assertions here about the
chief priests point to one of the reasons Christians give for belief in the
resurrection. His tomb, a marked grave
in which Jesus alone is laid in all four gospel accounts, was found to be empty
that Sunday morning again in all four gospels.
Unless the body was stolen as the Jews in Matthew’s account allege,
there is no other explanation for its disappearance than the resurrection.
However, our faith in the resurrection is based
on more than circumstantial evidence.
Jesus also appeared to people after his body was found missing. Today’s gospel speaks of the first appearance
-- to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.
Writing almost a generation later, St. Paul will give us a list of such
appearances: Peter, the Twelve, five hundred Christian brothers, and
himself. Based on their testimony, the
empty tomb, and our own experience of the power of Christ acting in our lives,
we do not hesitate to affirm that, yes, he rose from the dead.
