Acts  10:34.37-43
Psalm  117
Colossians  3:1-4
John  20:1–9
 
Reflections

We begin with a Easter passage from the Gospel of John. The arrival of some Greek pilgrims at Jerusalem, in the proximity of Christ’s last Easter, has the effect of a bright explosion on the mystery which is approaching. Those pilgrims have a question in their heart and on their lips: “We should like to see Jesus” (Jn 12:21). They were people of Greek language and culture, converted to or sympathisers with Judaism. Their desire has a rich missionary meaning. The question goes well beyond the curiosity to know the star of the day. They belong to another people, they come from afar, the journey has been tiring and their hearts are urged by spiritual motivations. They wish to see Jesus: not for a fleeting greeting, but for getting acquainted with his identity, to grasp his message of life. In John’s message there are further vocational and missionary details: to arrive at Jesus we often need people to guide and accompany us. Those pilgrims look for a liaison from their culture, Philip and Andrew, the only ones among the apostles with a Greek name.

 
Those Greek pilgrims acquire an emblematic value: together with other persons of non-Judaic origins (like the Centurion of Capernaum, the Canaanite woman and others), are the first fruits of far away people, they too called to set off on a journey along the Lord’s paths. The aspiration of changing one’s life, to know the true God, and eventually to meet Christ, is inherent to everyman’s heart. It is a wish that carries on through centuries, runs across persons, peoples and cultures; it is at times explicit and at times silent, intuitive, unutterable, often confused, fragmentary, contradictory, but it is always a groan borne from the depth of life. They are true SOS of the spirit, small and eloquent like the sms… Often gestures, situations, pains, tragedies, silences… are screaming louder than words.

 
“We should like to see Jesus!” Jesus replies to the request of the Greek pilgrims by announcing that his hour has come, the hour to be lifted up from the earth and draw everyone to himself (Jn 12:32), so that all peoples may reach the fullness of life. The hour of the wheat grain that dies to yield a rich harvest (Jn 12:24). Here we find an autobiographic detail: the wheat grain that dies to give life is Jesus himself. He is talking about himself and shows the only way that leads to life: to go through death and resurrection. Only the one who follows this path will be able to announce to others the dead and risen Christ. The evangelist John suggests that those capable of showing Jesus to others are the apostles who, after having personally met the Risen Lord, announce in an Easter joy: “We have seen the Lord!” (Jn 20:24). For John the evangelist, the whole Mission span is contained in these two sentences: “We should like to see Jesus!” and “We have seen the Risen Lord!” The journey is completed in all its stages: In its beginning, meeting, dialogue, growth, maturity, joy, spreading…

 
Who will provide an answer to so many expectations? The answer is entrusted to men and women, that is, to us Christians, the witnesses of the Risen Lord. A theoretical answer or the repetition of a formula will not suffice; the missionary answer has to begin from a loving knowledge, from conversion and adherence to Christ. The Christians and the missionaries must be able to say, just like the apostles after the resurrection: “We have seen the Lord!” (Jn 20:24). “The apostle is a messenger but, before that, an expert of Jesus” (Benedict XVI). He too must become a wheat grain that dies to yield a rich harvest (Jn 12:24). In this way only may he announce the Gospel and give it credibility and effectiveness. (*)

 
The missionary commitment of announcing and sharing is borne from the experience of the new life in Christ. From the time of Christ’s resurrection there is a new type of relationship: with God, among human beings, with the cosmos, with the forces of good and evil… A better life is possible thanks to the commitment of those who believe in Christ, who died and rose again.

 

The belief in the resurrection of Christ invites us to commit ourselves for the resurrection of man. The logo of the public display of the Shroud, which will take place in Turin (10 April-23 May 2010), has a great human and missionary implication: “Passion of Christ – Passion of man”. Christ, a man of sorrows, even today suffers on account of the sorrows of man: of every person. Through his passion and resurrection, Christ becomes the archetype of the new human family borne from Easter: it is the family of those who are risen. To do Mission today – for laypeople sisters and priests – means to collaborate with the Spirit of the Risen Lord, so that the resurrection of Christ may become the resurrection of man. In this way the contemplation of Christ’s passion is not just a thing of the past but becomes commitment for the present and for the future: it necessarily flows in a renewed missionary commitment.

 
The Pope’s words

(*)  “The Resurrection is not a thing of the past, the Resurrection has reached us and seized us. We grasp hold of it, we grasp hold of the risen Lord, and we know that he holds us firmly even when our hands grow weak. We grasp hold of his hand, and thus we also hold on to one another’s hands, and we become one single subject, not just one thing. I, but no longer I (see Gal 2:20): this is the formula of Christian life rooted in Baptism, the formula of the Resurrection within time. I, but no longer I: if we live in this way, we transform the world. It is a formula contrary to all ideologies of violence, it is a programme opposed to corruption and to the desire for power and possession”.

Benedict XVI

Homily of Easter Vigil, 15.4.2006

 In the footsteps of Missionaries

- 4/4: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all nations. Alleluia!

- 4/4: St. Isidore (about 570-636), Bishop of Seville and Doctor of the Church, a keen seeker of knowledge and a good organiser. He is recognised as the last of the Fathers of the Latin Church.

- 4/4: St. Benedict Massarari, called "The Black", descendant of African slaves. He spent his life (1526-1589) in Sicily. He was a Franciscan, and was the first black African to be canonised. He is one of the Patrons of Palermo.

- 4/4: We remember Martin Luther King (born in Atlanta, USA, 1929): Leader of the Civil Rights movement, seeking racial integration through active non-violence. He received the Nobel Peace Prize (1964) and was assassinated in Memphis on 4th April 1968.

- 5/4: St. Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419), a Spanish Dominican priest, one of the great preachers and itinerant missionaries of western Europe.

- 7/4: St John Baptist de la Salle (1651-1719), educator and Founder of the Brothers of Christian Schools. In 1950 Pope Pius XII proclaimed him special Patron of all teachers.

- 7/4: World Health Day, organised by UNO-WHO.

- 8/4: World Day for Rom and Sinti populations.

- 9/4: Bl. Tommaso da Tolentino (about 1260-1321), Franciscan missionary priest who even reached China and was martyred in India.

- 9/4: We remember Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), German Lutheran theologian; symbol of the resistance against Nazism. He died in the concentration camp of Flossenburg.