One of them put in a flower representing new life. Another, a plastic butterfly symbolising a caterpillar transformation into a butterfly, another sign of new life. The teacher came to Sammy’s egg-shell. She opened it and it was empty. Not wanting to embarrass Sammy she proceeded to take another egg—shell. But Sammy shouted out… “Why are you not saying anything”? The teacher replied, “It is empty inside”. Sammy responded, “So too was Jesus’ tomb”.
He died and He rose and the only evidence we have is the empty tomb. But the empty is not just a physical reality. For the Gospel of the 5th Sunday of Lent, we heard that Jesus raised Lazarus from the death. He bought him back to life but that revival was only an appetiser, a foretaste of what was to come. That was not the resurrection but a resuscitation.
The empty tomb is a proclamation of Christ’s victory over sin and death. Death can no longer hold on to us for eternity. Instead, death now becomes a doorway, offering hope to us in this life which is often incomprehensible. For example, how is one to make sense for someone whose life is just one mishap after another? You know the kind where one bad thing happens after another. Or someone for some tragic reason, life is cut short just when one’s fortune is about to take off?
All the Readings, both old and new, and the Gospel provide a view that history, since the beginning of creation, is basically a testament to the Resurrection. Firstly, sin came into the world and the world, suffering the sting of eternal damnation, has been groaning for salvation. Christ has always been the awaited Saviour that creation and humanity having been longing for so that we may have life to the fullest.
The word “fullest” has different meanings for people. Amongst our generation, it is a promise buoyed or propped up by a material foundation. The Chinese “fuk1, luk6, sau6” (福, 祿, 壽. Cantonese pronunciation) best epitomises this materialism which reflects a preoccupation with prosperity, position and permanence (longevity). We conceive of a fuller life when we are materially or even psychologically fulfilled or contented. Even our information superhighway, now propelled by artificial intelligence, promises us a more complete or wholesome existence.
Yet, baptism numbers seem to have increased in some developed and progressive countries where there appear to be no need of religion. For example, France saw the highest number of baptism in the recent past. Why? In London, I encountered people attending mid-day Masses and people going for Confession. Why?
Perhaps fullest is ironically incomplete when it is based on a material satisfaction or even psychological gratification. Buy the “hot-off-the-press” whatever and you know what that means. The minute you possess the latest computer, phone, car, house, the item purchased is already obsolete. By September sometime this year, your cutting-edge iPhone 17 will be outmoded. And we are left craving for more which is nothing more than a pining for a permanence which is transcendent. The soul has a hunger for heaven which we have mistaken earthly realities for. The pathway to heaven can only be traversed through the Resurrection.
So Lazarus or anyone brought back to life had to die again so that they could experience the Resurrection. Christ conquered death to free us from the fear of dying and death. Death is no longer the final chapter that closes our lives in this world. The man or woman who in the eyes of the world is considered a failure now stands a chance of redemption and completion, if not temporally, then eternally. Christ by vanquishing death has made it into a pathway through which we could pass over safely. The Viaticum now makes a lot of sense. We gain spiritual strength from consuming Jesus so that we can make the necessary transition for this life to the next.
When the stock exchanges or financial markets were having it so good, materially that is, all it took was for the pandemic to uncover the false promises of economic prosperity. We were stopped in our tracks and the world woke up to the question, “Is there more?”. Right now, Iran may provide yet another chance for reflection. Iran's indiscriminate use of conventional weapons of war has put many on edge with questions. What if she truly possesses enriched uranium, enough and unafraid to to initiate a nuclear winter? The very fear of death which we encountered during the pandemic and now with Iran's nuclear capabilities, has now given courage to people to peer beyond the curtain of mortality imposed by existence to a more promising completion. Is there more that awaits after death?
That promising fulfilment is called the Resurrection. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, He can stay buried with Muhammad or Muhammad can even outrank Him. Jesus can sit with Buddha and converse on the cycle of endless reincarnations. Or Jesus can enter into the multiverse of the Hindu deities. But He rose from the dead, proving that He is the Lord of Life. Death and life are in His hands and because He holds life in His hands, we are empowered to live beyond the fear of dying. He alone can offer us a new life.
O death where is your sting and O grave, where is your victory?
The martyrs whom the world considered to have senselessly lost their lives are alive in Him because what was their annihilation was in fact their triumphant entry into the new life of Christ. Thus, every single saint who suffered in this world, or all who went to their death as if they were considered failure in this lifetime can take comfort that their death will not be the end. Tonight’s empty tomb affords us reason to live with hope because life to the fullest is promised by Risen Christ.
