There is a contrast between the glorious and joyous light of the resurrection (vv.8-10) and the darkness that tried to cover-up the truth of the resurrection (vv. 11-15) in the Gospel Reading of Monday of Paschal Octave (Matthew 28:8-15).
At the dawn of the first day of the week, after
Passover sabbath, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, who can be Mary the mother
of James and Joseph (Matthew 27:56), came to see the tomb of Jesus (Matthew
28:1). And a great earthquake happened as an angel of the Lord descended and
rolled back the stone of the tomb (Matthew 28:2). The angel, whose appearance
was like lightning and whose clothing was white as snow (Matthew 28:3), told
the women about the resurrection of Jesus and instructed them to tell the
disciples of the resurrection and to go to Galilee to meet risen Jesus (Matthew
28:5-7). In the meantime, the Roman soldiers who were guarding the tomb were
mortified (Matthew 28:4).
The women, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, were
fearful but overjoyed, to have learned that Jesus’ tomb was empty because of
his resurrection, and ran to announce it to the disciples, as told by the angel
of the Lord (Matthew 28:8). While these women were running from the tomb to
where the disciples were, risen Jesus appeared and greeted them, and they did
him homage and embraced his feet (Matthew 28:9). And Jesus said to Mary and the
other Mary:
Do
not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me
(Matthew 28:10).
And the disciples went to Galilee and were
commissioned for their apostolic missions to make disciples of all nations
(Matthew 28:16-20).
Galilee was where Jesus began his public ministry
and where he recruited these eleven disciples (Matthew 4:12-25). Judas was the only
one from Judea, and he had committed suicide by that time after betraying Jesus
(Matthew 27:3-10).
Starting anew
after the resurrection in Galilee, where it all started, tells that the resurrection
of Jesus was to renew the pastoral life of his disciples for their apostolic
mission upon Pentecost. And, this strain of events from fearful encounter with
the empty tomb to joyful encounter with risen Jesus reflects the beginning of
the new joyful light of the resurrection.
This is symbolically represented with the lightening of a new paschal
candle at Paschal Vigil Mass, as Lumen
Christi .
In contrast, there was the darkness trying to cover Lumen Christi of the resurrection by the religious leaders in Jerusalem, who conspired the Roman authority to have Jesus killed.
The day after the death and burial of Jesus, the
chief priests and the Pharisees asked Pilate to send some of his soldiers to
guard Jesus’ tomb until the third day from his death, because he said he would
rise again after three days (Matthew 27:62-64a; cf. Matthew 16:21). And they
said to Pilate that the disciples of Jesus would come and steal the body and
make a deceptive public announcement of the resurrection (Matthew 27:64b).
They are the wicked people mentioned by Peter (Acts
2;23), and they are not only the evil to have Jesus killed but also tried to
prevent the resurrection from being known. They are enemies not only to Christ
but also the resurrection.
The wicked did not want Jesus to be around. So, they
forged the blasphemy charge (e.g. Exodus 20:7; 22:28; Leviticus 24;16) against
Jesus by means of false witnesses, though their attempts to find false evidence
did not succeed (Matthew 26:59-68). But when they brought Jesus to Pilate the
Roman governor, they fabricated a different charge against him, “the king of
the Jew”, in addition to the charge of calling himself the Christ, though
Pilate did not find any of these charges to be warranted (Matthew 27:11-24).
Sensing that Pilate did not find the case against Jesus, these wicked religious
leaders kept pushing him to execute Jesus, by turning the crowd into fanatic
mob, persistently demanding Pilate to execute Jesus, to the point that he had
to give in (Matthew 27:22-26).
The wicked did everything they could do to silence Jesus – even it takes them to violate the Law that they taught (e.g. Exodus 20:16; Leviticus 19:11, 15; Deuteronomy 5:20; 18:18) and used to fabricate the blasphemy charge against him .
Some of the Roman soldiers who were guarding the
tomb of Jesus reported to the incident of the empty tomb to the chief priests,
and they bribed the soldiers to make false testimony that the disciples of
Jesus stole his body from the tomb in the night while they were sleeping, upon their
consultation with the elders (Matthew 28:11-13). And these wicked leaders,
servants of the darkness, assured the soldiers that they would not be accused
for what was paid by them: making false testimony about the body of Jesus
(Matthew 28:14). The wicked bribed the Roman soldiers to lie about the body of
Jesus, as stolen by the disciples, so that people would not believe in Jesus
and his resurrection. Because of this, the resurrection of Jesus has been a
matter of controversy (i.e. Matthew 28:15).
This is just like the Newton’s third law: the
principle of force and counterforce. In
reaction to the Lumen Christi Paschalis of joy and renewal, the evil
darkness of the wicked tried to obscure this light.
As disciples of Jesus today, we are in constant
battle with the darkness in the world. We carry reflect the Lumen Christi Paschalis, as the light of the world through our good deeds against
evil and injustice of the world (i.e. Matthew 5:14-16). It is our mission to
make children of light out of the darkness in the world (i.e. Ephesians 5:8),
and this is one way to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19).
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