EASTER

by Jerry Fuller, O.M.I.

• Joey was one of those scary little kids you come across every once in a while, the type who seems to know much more that you might expect in a child, the beginnings of wisdom in a five-or six-year-old.
  Joey's mother and father had always tried to live up to their responsibility as his first and most important teachers about faith. For a long time, their son had known about Jesus as though he were a member of the family. Joey knew how good Jesus was, how kind he was, how God was at work in Jesus and did wonderful things for all the people through his Son.
  That year, during Holy Week, they also told Joey about what had happened to Jesus at the hands of bad people. They told him about Jesus' suffering and his death. And on Easter morning, they told him that Jesus rose from the dead.
  Joey always enjoyed learning about Jesus, and all during this special week, he was right there with Mom and Dad, seeming to take very seriously the sad story as it unfolded. But he did have a little trouble with the Resurrection. As a matter of fact, what he said was, "Nope. When you're dead, you're dead." Mom and Dad were perplexed, and they tried again, retelling the story. They explained that God acted on behalf of his Son, Jesus, that because Jesus was so true to God and so faithful to all Gods people, God gave him new life.
  Joey tried really hard to listen, but he was still shaking his head. Very patiently, Mom and Dad assured their son that they believed, and that it was really true.
  Suddenly Joey jumped up and headed toward the telephone.
  "Where are you gong?" they asked. "Who are you going to call?"
  Joey's face was bright, and eager, and intense. "Does Grandpa know about this? I gotta tell him!" (1)

Joey had the right idea. The fact of Jesus' rising from the dead is so mind-boggling that we immediately feel the need to tell someone. Mary Magdalene felt that need after seeing Jesus on resurrection, and she raced back to Jerusalem to tell the apos- tles: "He is risen!"

Wouldn't it be great if we all, still today, had that need to rush out and tell the world: "Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!" If we only had the simple faith and enthusiasm of little Joey. The Russians had that faith during the time of communistic persecution.

• Shortly after the communists took over in the nineteen-twenties in Russia, a communist official was haranguing the people on Easter Sunday, telling them they must no longer believe in God and in Jesus rising from the dead. He said they must substitute a special communist day of atheism for the feast of Easter. He asked if there were any questions.
  A small, old man in the front row raised his hand. The communist invited him to rise and speak. The little man got up, turned to the thousands of people gathered, and cried out "Anesthe!" It was the traditional Russian Easter greeting meaning, "He is risen!" The voices of the thousands shook the heavens as they shouted back "Alethinos anesthe," or "He is risen indeed!". In that terrific shouted response, the communist had his answer. He would never erase from the hearts of the people their faith in the risen Christ.

We hope we are so filled with the joy of this Easter morning that we will be glad to share the reason for our joy. We hope we're not like the second-grader whose teacher took her pupils on a walking tour along a river bank. Our shrewd second-grader saw through the purpose of the outing. He took one of his classmates by the arm and, in a confidential but authoritative voice, offered this bit of advice: "Don't look. If we look, we'll have to tell about it tomorrow."

Yes, we must tell about it, not only tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow and as long as there those who have not heard the good word. Perhaps we are somewhat afraid because we are more swayed by what the apostles saw--an empty tomb--than by a vision of the resurrected Jesus, which we would like to have had.. How can you tell others about tomb, we ask?

But it is precisely that empty tomb that is the basis of our faith. Peter and John both went to the empty tomb. But when they saw the empty garments, scripture says only John believed. Why?

I think it is because faith comes only to those who walk the path of the cross. Peter had denied Jesus and fled from the cross. John stood beneath the cross with Jesus' mother, Mary, and the other women. John believed that Jesus had risen because he had carried out faith in action, he had stood beneath the cross with all the fear that meant to him of losing his own life.

• Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker movement, had this kind of faith. For close to a half-century until her death in 1980, Dorothy Day put into practice the command of active love among the destitute of new York City, feeding and clothing and sheltering the poor, visiting the sick and the imprisoned, at times going to prison herself as a witness for peace and for justice on behalf of the exploited and oppressed. At the very beginning of her work, not long after her conversion to Catholicism, she was sharing a meal with two homeless women, who asked her for a place to stay. She sadly had to say that there was no room, and the two women left, one soon returned to say that the other had thrown herself under a subway train. Dorothy immediately got up and went out, walked down the street until she found an empty apartment in a tenement, and rented it with a five-dollar deposit, all the money she had. From that time onward the Catholic Worker Houses of Hospitality became a home for the homeless, because Dorothy recognized in even the least, and the least likely, that came to her doors, the presence of Jesus. Where others might find cause for discouragement or despair, she discovered a source of grace and hope. Where others saw only grave cloths, Dorothy Day saw signs of resurrection.

Even in the face of deepest tragedy, people of faith continue to find and affirm life.

• Recently 60 Minutes featured a story about the parents of Amy Beale, a young American woman who went to South Africa to study and work with the poor, and who was brutally murdered by two young black men during the period of disruption that preceded the fall of the apartheid regime. He parents were of course devastated, but rather than reacting to this barbarous act with bitterness and hatred, they responded with active love. They have continued and expanded their daughter's work by raising money to train and educate young people in the township where Amy worked and was murdered. They now spend more than half their time in South Africa. "When I'm here, her father says, I know that Amy is alive; I know that she's with us." One of the most powerful and affirming moments for Mrs. Beale happened when a young girl came up to her at the school and asked if she was Amy's mother; when she said she was, the girl told her that she was the sister of one of Amy's killers, and they embraced. "It is absolutely right that she be here," Mrs. Beale said, that she share in the gift that Amy's death and continued life has become. The Beales have even forgiven their daughter's killers, approving the amnesty they received after confessing their crimes to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the head of the commission, has said that the Beales's attitude and activity can only be explained as the working of the grace of God, and he called them witnesses to ubuntu, an African word that is very close in meaning to the biblical shalom, with its overtones of peace and reconciliation, harmony and wholeness. Their daughter's death has become an invitation to a deeper life, for themselves and for those they have come to serve. Where others see only grave cloths, they see--they are--signs of resurrection. (2)

• Water Bugs & Dragonflies is a thought-provoking little book about our transformation at death. A pastor's wife put the children's story into book form after her husband shared the story at the funeral of five-year-old boy who was tragically killed in their neighborhood. The story attempts to answer children's questions about death and the resurrection by telling of a colony of water bugs that wondered where their friends went when they climbed the water lily stalk and disappeared. The leader of the colony makes the other water bugs promise that the next bug to disappear will return and share information with the colony about the mysterious world beyond. As it so happens, the leader bug is the next bug to make the trip up the stalk. He breaks through the surface of the water and falls exhausted on the lily pad. When he awakes, he is amazed at the transformation of his body. As the dragonfly soars through the air, he realizes that his friends will have to wait until they are transformed to understand what actually takes place.

  In the parents' guide in the back of the book, the author acknowledges that an honest "I don't know" is the best answer to the question, "What happens when we die?" But the story is offered a way to help children (and adults!) think about God's promise that we will be transformed in the resurrection. (3)

References:

1. Larry Janowski, "Hope against hope," Markings, Easter, April 4, 1999 (The Thomas More Association, 205 West Monroe St.--Sixth Floor, Chicago IL 60606-5097).

2. "Model homily," Good News 26 (4): 124 (Liturgical Publications Inc., 2875 South James Drive, New Berlin WI 53151), April 1999.

3. Doris Stickney, Water Bugs & Dragonflies: Explaining Death to Children (Cleveland, Ohio: The Pilgrim Press, 1997)

(Comments to Jerry at padre@tri-lakes.net. Jerry's book, Stories For All Seasons, is available at a discount through the Homiletic Resource Center.)