The Fingerprints of God

My dear brothers and sisters, Easter is finally here! After a long Lent, and an intensive Holy Week, focused on the passion of the Lord, we have finally reach the point of Biggest Feast of the Church, the Resurrection of our Lord. And, beginning last night, many of us have already started our celebrations, small family feasts and gatherings with friends. What have you done so far for your celebrations?

Before, we talk more about what more can we do to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ, I would like to thank all of you for your presence in our community. Since Palm Sunday, many of our communities, the people sitting with you and among you, have been making extra trips to our church to help out in the many liturgical events at the Church. Our Easter Triduum, beginning with Holy Thursday had the presence and the participation of our English-speaking community. All your faithful contributions give glory to God, and we give thanks to God for all of you.

Actually, we have many things to give thanks to. As we gather here together as a faith community, we are indeed grateful that we have first, one another. There is a Chinese saying, 「远亲不如近邻」which means, a relative at a distance is not like a close neighbor – reminding us that when we are far from home, our neighbors are our best help… best help, in a sense of spiritual, physical and emotional company. I think many of us can also give thanks for our good health and perhaps the good health of our family. For some of us, we are grateful too, that we have a job and that we can provide for the people we love. And in the midst of all these thanksgiving, we are always grateful that even if we are going through a challenging period in our lives, we can always give thanks to Jesus for offering himself of the cross for us, and promising us eternal life.

Saint Paul reminds us that in this awareness of Christ’s gift to us, we need to be thankful and more so, be different. He said, we don’t need a lot, because “a little yeast leavens all the dough”, and hence, we just need to start little, by start not using the old yeast, our old habits, some times of malice and wickedness, but to use new yeast, born of our gratefulness to the resurrection of Christ, to leaven the world with sincerity and truth!

I think the resurrection of Jesus carries this question in our life constantly, “So what happens after Easter? What happens now that Christ is resurrected? In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we are told that it was time for US to continue the mission of God – to go out to preach to people and testify to others about our faith, what we believe and how that belief has shaped us.

And I think to do this well, we have to go back to the moment when Jesus was buried in the time as well. Because it is not only about the triumph over death, it is also the birth, the ministry, the crucifixion, the death and burial of Jesus - the full paschal mystery, from the incarnation to the ascension!

We return to when Jesus was buried in the tomb, whenever we are troubled and confused by things happening in our lives. We return to the tomb with Mary of Magdela and the apostles when we do not understand why things are happening in the way that we don’t want to accept… and then when we reach the tomb, we are surprised that what we thought was going badly, is no longer there. Jesus is no longer in the tomb, reminding us that with Jesus, nothing is impossible. With Jesus, the burial clothes that binded him had no more power, he took them off and left them behind. He is ready to make anew all things.

The resurrected Christ is ready to do more, but many a times, we are the ones not ready. Like Mary of Magdela, we might have thought that Jesus is no longer where we believe He would be because someone “had taken the Lord”. Like the other disciple who arrived at the tomb first but was not ready to enter the tomb, we are unwilling to take a step into the uncertainties of our lives. And there are those of us who think with our body, and we rush into things like Peter, and enter into experiences that we do not understand.

But the other disciple, the other disciple showed us that in the midst of our confusion, in the midst of not understanding fully, if we take a step into the uncertainty, and examine the details, we will find that Jesus’ fingerprints are all over our lives.

For the other disciple who finally found the courage to walk into the tomb of uncertainty, he saw that the burial cloths that was used on the body was left on one side of the tomb, and the burial cloth used for Jesus’ head rolled up and placed in a separate place. He must had thought of what Mary said, that “they have taken him”, but considered why would some tomb robbers take off the burial cloths off Jesus? Even more ridiculous would be that the tomb robbers even took time to roll up the burial cloth for Jesus’ head and placed it in another corner.

The other disciple realized that when he examined what were in the tomb, that Jesus had left them clues as to the fact that He had risen and unbinded himself of the burial cloths. It was in that moment, that he “saw”, he saw with his eyes of faith, and believed.

My brothers and sisters, the Gospel for today, reminds us that in times of trouble, frustration, and disappointment, we need to return to this moment at the tomb, when all of Jesus’ disciples were at a loss as to what and who to believe. And then, for us to imitate “the other disciple” in examining, in deeply examine what was going on in our life. This Examen, in Ignatian Spirituality, calls on us to look at moments of consolation and desolation in our lives, not to feel good or bad, but to recognize the fingerprints of God in these moments.

Just like many years ago, in my second year in the seminary, when I was facing extremely bad migraines. I thought for sure that I was going to be kicked out of the seminary. But then, when I looked back, Jesus was with me in these pains, through my formators and fellow seminarians who took care of me, who supported me, who accompanied to the doctors, who planned retreats for me, who never gave up on me. And then when I recovered, when I saw the burial cloths left behind in my spiritual life, I was able to use my experiences, the help I have received, to journey with others who were facing diminishments in their lives.

My brothers and sisters, God’s ways are mysterious, but they are not hidden. We need to take time to pause, to enter into prayer, to look for the graces we have received, the fingerprints of God all over our lives.

Hence, as we continue in the Eucharistic celebration, we will once again remember that Jesus was willing to make the sacrifice to help us believe in Him, Jesus has offer Himself in the Eucharist to give us continued Divine Subsentence for us to persevere in sharing the Easter joy continually for the rest of our lives. And it is in this Divine Feast, the Body and Blood of Christ, that we will find the spiritual gifts to understand why the burial cloths were left in the tomb, the confusing moments in our lives, and see the divine fingerprints that Christ had left to remind us of His promise to be with us always, through a family member, a friend, a neighbor, even in a foreign land.

My brothers and sisters, may this Easter be a season of renewal in our lives, personally and as a community. And may we, in our Easter celebrations, bring the God News that Christ has risen from the dead and is present in our lives to everyone!