Can it be true?

Have you heard the news?  How often have we heard this phrase ... or some derivative of it?  Sometimes what follows is myth and sometimes it is truth, but in most cases, we shouldn’t believe anything to be true until we can find some proof.  That’s the principle, but it seems to me that in today’s world of fast-paced information exchange, some people accept any rumour as gospel, even before they have verified the sources.

Today, Christians around the world are gathering in places just like this one because we too have heard the news.  Some of us may be here because we have heard the news from someone else, but we have not yet had a chance to verify the sources.  Some of us believe this news to be true because we trust the sources from which we have received it, and others of us have no doubt at all that the news is true because we have heard the truth for ourselves.

Someone might ask: What is this great news, and why all the fuss?  The answer lies in the experience of the women who went to the tomb early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark (Jn 20:1).  These women had spent time sitting with Jesus.  They had heard him say that on the third day he would rise, but among themselves, they had whispered: who among us believes that such words could actually come true?  Even today, as we sit and chat with our family members and friends, how often do we speak about heaven, about the time when we will no longer walk on this earth?  Such subjects are taboo, yet this is precisely what the women were witnessing.

Numbed by fear and disbelief, they ran ... to Simon Peter and the other disciple ... and said to them: ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him’ (Jn 20:2).  These are words of fear and confusion, human words that portray human emotions.  Peter and the other disciple also set out and went toward the tomb ... running (Jn 20:3).  They too could not believe what they were hearing.  It was only when they reached the place and saw for themselves: the linen wrappings lying there ... and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself (Jn 20:5-7) that they believed.

Later on, Peter, Paul and the other disciples would speak openly about that moment when they witnessed the fulfillment of the good news that Jesus had spoken about: that one day he would rise.  We hear a part of their testimony in the other readings today (Acts 10:37-43; Col 3:1-4).  Because they were able to speak about it, we have heard the good news, and this is the reason why we celebrate today, why we greet one another with exultant joy, why our voices ring out: He is risen!  Alleluia!  Happy Easter!