Their story seemed like nonsense

Bar 3,9-15.32-4,4; Ez 36,16-17a.18-28; Rm 6,3-11; Ps 117; Lk 24,1-12
20 APRIL

Everything in the relationship between God and man happens through revelation, proclamation and manifestation. Man was created in the image and likeness of God. The Lord reveals him immediately what he must do on earth. He is placed at the watch. It is shown to him that the tree of knowledge of good and evil is a tree that gives death. Its fruits must never be eaten. Immediately after disobedience, the Lord comes and reveals what his plan of salvation is. Thus he works with Cain, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua and the Prophets. There is no knowledge of the will and works of God except by revelation, manifestation and proclamation. We enter the New Testament. The Virgin Mary is proclaimed her vocation to be the Mother of the Son of the Most High, of the Messiah of God. The birth of John and his mission are revealed to Zechariah. Even Joseph is revealed what he will have to do. So it is also for other characters for the birth and early childhood of Jesus: the shepherds, the Magi, Simeon and Anna. Everything happens by revelation. Nothing is known except by manifestation. Even the public life of Jesus was a true revelation of the Father.

Jesus has risen. This mystery too is subject to the law of revelation, manifestation and announcement. First one believes and then Jesus manifests himself. The women go to the sepulchre. The stone has been turned over. The tomb is empty. From two angels of the Lord, first they are invited not to seek among the dead the one who is alive, because he has risen. Then, having received the announcement of the resurrection, they are sent by the disciples to bring this happy announcement that Jesus has risen, according to the words that they had already heard from the mouth of the Master when they were with Him in Galilee. The women go to the Eleven. Their words seemed like a raving and a daydream. There is no immediate faith in the news heard. However, Peter wants to see with his own eyes what the women have announced him. He runs to the sepulchre. He finds it empty. The body of Christ Jesus is not in it. He remains full of amazement. If a part of the women’s announcement is true, the other part must necessarily be also true. If death on the cross was true, the resurrection will also be true. They are one Word of Jesus and one mystery. One part is fulfilled and the other part is also fulfilled.

But at daybreak on the first day of the week they took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them. They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.” And they remembered his words. Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles, but their story seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone; then he went home amazed at what had happened.

Why does Jesus want his resurrection to be believed by announcement and not by vision? Because the announcement is the only way through which God has always manifested himself. Our faith is to the Word. It is by believing in the Word that one can believe in the One who is contained, revealed and manifested in the Word. Word and God, Word and Jesus are one in the Spirit. One believes in the Word of Christ in Christ. We do not believe in the Word, we do not believe in Christ. One obeys the Word he obeys Christ. One withdraws from the Word, he withdraws from Christ. The Word is changed or transformed, it is Christ and it is God who is modified and transformed. Today, we no longer have the true Christ and the true God, because we no longer have the true Word of God. We have a strongly modified Word that offers us a God who is no longer the God of the Word. Christ is in the Word.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, help us to give the Word of Jesus its truth.