Coffee With God - 5 April 2021 - Rejoice

Reflection: Mt 28:8-15 We begin the Octave of Easter. Throughout the week, the liturgy of the Word focuses on the appearances of Jesus to his disciples, in the most varied forms. In today's Gospel passage, Jesus appears to women who return scared but happy from the empty tomb. They were the first to notice the episode of the resurrection. Therefore, they ran to break the news to the other disciples, when Jesus himself approached them. Although they are scared, the first words of Jesus is to "Rejoice." The resurrection is the greatest of all joys. This experience is also directed at us today. His second message to the women: “Do not be afraid: go tell my brothers to go to Galilee; they will see me there ”. The theme of fear is recurrent in the hours following the crucifixion and even in the resurrection scenes. The Risen Jesus called his former deserters his brothers. That was the first and only time in the whole Gospel narrative that Jesus referred to the disciples in that intimate way. Matthew invites his readers into the new nature of the relationship between Jesus and all those who would become his followers. With Jesus they could now share the risen life - as sons and daughters of God and brothers and sisters of Jesus. The risen Jesus has no enemies. His redemptive response to the sin of the world was forgiveness. Jesus had learnt perfectly the heart of his Father. His love excluded no one. While Jesus was on the Cross, dying, the chief priests had taunted him by saying: Let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him [27:42]. Confronted now with the mystery of resurrection, they still refused belief. What the chief priests asked of the guards to declare was not logical. If the guards were asleep, while the body of Jesus disappeared, how would they know, it was the disciples of the dead man who came and stole the body? If they were asleep, they wouldn’t know how the sealed tomb got breached and how did the body disappear! And if they were awake, the forces that breached the tomb was beyond the control of the guards to stop them. If we believe in everything we celebrate these days, it is time to go out to meet our brothers and sisters and tell them that we too have met the risen Jesus and that He is alive in our midst. For this, it is necessary that we go to the "Galilee" of our times and there we rediscover the suffering faces that need the good news of the resurrection.