Seeing… Understanding… Believing…
The gradual process of perception…
The slowly evolving recognition…
The graced-filled experience of FAITH!

The text offered to our reflection on this Easter Sunday (John 20:1-9)
is an interesting one – interesting and inspiring!
Interesting in that it is linked to the reality of human experience.
Inspiring in how it reveals what goes beyond human experience.

John and Peter are at the tomb where Jesus has been laid.
Both of them observe a detail, something that might have escaped the notice of someone else.

We are told that having reached the place first, John (referred to as ‘the other disciple’):
“bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there”.

Of Peter, it is said that:
“He saw the strips of linen lying there,
as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head.
The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen”.

Emptiness… Absence… and… FAITH!

The tomb is empty, no corpse is lying there as was expected.
Jesus is… obviously absent… away…
What the two apostles see are only objects, signs pointing to a reality which they have to interpret.
They do and… they believe!

The text mentions:
“Till this moment, they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture,
that he (Jesus) must rise from the dead”.

Our own faith is also slowly evolving, our perception is gradual, as that of Peter and John was.
We, too, need signs to believe…
They will not be those of pieces of linen and cloth that have been used for Jesus’ body.

The signs given to us will be of a different nature, but no less meaningful and… convincing…
– the help received when most unexpected…
– the information needed that is discovered at the right moment…
– the solution of a problem found where it was not meant to be…
– the prevention of an accident that we deem ‘quite a miracle’…
– the resolution of a conflict that was beyond expectation…
– the healing of a relationship when all seemed lost…
and so many more astonishing happenings that prompt our doubt to yield to genuine faith!

The Risen Lord, who seemed absent, reveals his presence in those areas of emptiness that were NOT empty after all!

Note: Another text is available on a different theme, in French, at: https://image-i-nations.com/dimanche-de-paques-resurrection-du-seigneur-annee-b-2024/

Source: Image: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints