Happy Easter! Boy we all love the account on Easter morning of Peter and the other apostle running to the tomb and the other apostle getting there first and waiting for Peter to go in, before he goes in. I can really connect with John’s excitement in the moment and just start to wonder about all the things that ran through his head as he ran to the tomb. I imagine a good run of at least a ½ mile, which would take several minutes. I don’t know about you, but when I run for a bit, my mind starts to wander and if I were running to the empty tomb after hearing Mary say, “they have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” all kinds of thoughts would be running through my head.
I would be wondering HOW? My first thought would be how could Jesus be missing? I was standing at the foot of the cross when the soldier pierced his side and blood and water flowed out. I heard the women sob when his body was taken down. I was pretty sure that he was dead. How is it that he is alive or at least missing? Doubt and wonder would creep into my thoughts as I ran to the tomb trying to figure out for myself what was going on. He is an apostle of action with great courage. He stood by Jesus through the whole ordeal of his crucifixion. He was there and saw it all first hand. So he runs to tomb to see for himself.
After Peter enters the tomb, John follows and it says, “… he saw and believed”. Peter and John, the first to the tomb and together for a lot of key moments. With James, they are present for the transfiguration and for the raising of the Daughter of Jarius. It is John and Peter, who after Pentecost, cure the crippled man at the temple gate and get thrown in jail together. I was able to attend all 8 masses this past week for the whole octave of Easter, the first time in my life I have been able to do this simple thing. It was nice. The celebration of this great feast. Through it all, I was thinking about St. John and how this young man became the only apostle not killed for his faith. He ran to the tomb. He had to know for himself.
He teaches us about love and faith in his writing and his discourse on the bread of life is a beautiful definition of the real presence. What was he thinking when he first peered into the tomb. This has been my Easter meditation. Thinking about all the things that would be running through St. John’s thoughts as he walks back from the tomb with Peter. What happened to the Lord? Who could have taken him and why? It must have been hard to go from grieving for the loss of someone in your life to the unknown of the empty tomb. I wonder if my faith would be strong enough. I know that when I have suffered loss in life, the first few days I am not yet accepting it and so I act normal and then the grief hits me and I mourn the loss and I can be moody. St. John has to do all this and deal with the empty tomb. It gets easier for him, as the Lord appears to them in the locked room and it all makes sense, but between the appearance and the first trip to the empty tomb, what was running through his mind. I like to think that his brilliant mind had figured out the connections between what Jesus said had to happen and reality and that is why he is able to write, “… he saw and believed”.
What would you see when you looked into the tomb?