The time—a Sunday morning in the year 33 A.D.

The place—a garden on a hill outside Jerusalem.

The scene—a stone slab in a darkened tomb.

A torn, lifeless body wrapped in white, resting motionless upon the stone.  It’s quiet.  The guards are asleep outside.  The turmoil and excitement of the previous Friday have faded away into boredom.  The man is dead.  He promised much, but came through with little.  He stirred up a fuss for a while, a typical agitator disturbing the people.  But now He’s dead, and let’s quickly set about the business of forgetting Him.

Then the sun peeps over the horizon.  A shaft of light pierces the darkened tomb.  And something happened.  What happened?  How do we know?  Look not to the empty tomb for proof.  Even if we proved the tomb empty, we can still refuse to believe.  Most people refused belief.  Rather, look to the lives of His followers.

Look at those dejected, despairing men on Saturday.  Look at them gradually come to life on Sunday.  Look at them slowly come to the conviction: He lives!  He lives on!  After death, He gives life!  His words, His deeds, His very person who promised life, healed life, built life, and redeemed life—now lives on to give life forever.

That to my mind is the message of Easter—the message of Resurrection.  Not so much that a torn and lifeless body came back to life, appeared a few times, and left the world never to return until Judgment Day.  That is not the message of His followers.  They proclaim:

• “Behold, I am with you all days…”
• “Where two or three are gathered in My name, I am in your midst.”
• “I am the vine, you the branches.”
• “What you do or not do to these least ones, you do or not do to Me.”
• “Live on in My love, and the Father and I will come and make our home in you.”
• “I live now, not I, but Christ lives in me.”

Those who are baptized live no longer their own life but the life of Him who died for them and rose again.  Christ is in you—your hope of glory!  Do you not know that you are the body of Christ!

Mysterious?—indeed.  Baffling?—yes.  Confusing?—of course.  That’s the Word of God.  That is what His followers experienced.  They gradually become convinced not that Jesus left the world, but that He remains in the world, more closely, more widely, more intimately bound up in the affairs and lives of men and women than He ever was before.

You see, before the Resurrection, Jesus had a body like yours and mine (not so big!), a body confined to time and space, a body that could trudge the roads of Palestine, a body that limited Him so He could live within the confines of one set of hands and feet, one human frame, one human heart.  But now, with Resurrection, His followers proclaim He has a new body, one united with millions of other human frames, present to all those men and women who fill their lives with faith and love, a body that can walk the streets of Jerusalem and Rome, Washington and New York, through you and through me.  And so…

The time—Sunday morning in the year 2020 A.D.

The place—a garden-spot on the outskirts of Hollidaysburg.

The scene—this Chapel.

Let us see this Chapel today as the darkened tomb in which a body, this body of Christ, rests motionless, waiting for resurrection.  It’s quiet.  Outside, many are asleep.  Good Friday has slipped even farther into the past so that the world is even more bored with Christ than it was 2,000 years ago, a world no longer disturbed by Him, a world that has succeeded quite well in the business of forgetting Him.  After all, the man is dead.

And if He remains dead this morning.  If the sun does not burst over our horizon.  If a shaft of light does not pierce this darkened tomb.  If the body remains lifeless, undisturbed by Jesus, uncommitted to God and to others, this Easter, then it will be because you and I do not offer Him new flesh, new hands, a new heart in which He can rise.

Once again, the Resurrection of Jesus will be proven not so much by arguments over an empty tomb, but by proof of filled-up lives.  Do you not know that you are the body of Christ?

Many of us do know that.  Many spouses, fathers and mothers, young and old know that—by their commitment to healing and compassion, care and self-donation.  Many have offered Christ a body in which He is proud to dwell, in which He is proud to rise again.

But even we need to hear.  And those sleeping outside need even more to hear about the dignity and responsibilities of vocation: to be Church, to live in fraternity, to be a new humanity.  The Church, and in many ways the entire human family, are people first and foremost called toward the Risen Christ—people in whom He lives, people in whose hearts He dwells—that He might continue the work of mercy and peace, forgiveness and healing to a world still reaching out for life and reconciliation.

The Church is not a divine comfort station where we gather to admire the pretty flowers and music.  The Church is a launching-pad which sends us forth from this darkened tomb, to plant the seeds of new life, in a world still gasping in the pains of death.

So, I say to you this day—the heart of our faith is not an empty tomb.  The heart of our faith is filled-up lives, lives full of what Jesus said and did, lives that are poor in spirit, full of mercy, thirsty for justice, makers of peace.  The Gospels say that the Risen Lord left His garments behind in the tomb.  Let’s see this as a symbol that Jesus is now clothed with the garments of the world—the lives of men and women.

The tomb is empty.  But men and women are filled.  We are filled with the Risen Lord if we would look within, down deep into our lives, and find there the power to heal and the power to love.

So as the Risen Christ proclaims “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” I proclaim to you: “we are the resurrection and the life.”  We are the body of Christ, risen to life from the tomb, sent forth into the world to care and to cherish an earth, which stands bathed in the light of Easter morn.

Father Christopher, T.O.R.

CNSA, Servant-in-turn

https://secularfranciscansusa.org/2020/04/20/easter-sunday-2020-fr-christopher-t-o-r/

Our faith begins not in a thing, nor in a doctrine, nor in a church, though things and doctrines and churches flow from where our faith begins. Our religion is founded not at a great battle, convocation nor discovery; not in assertions of great ideas of persuasive arguments; not in messages from “the heavens” nor “angels” nor “the clouds;” not in an overarching code of ethics, morals nor system of philosophy.

No, our founding stems from none of these, although many things of various natures may stem from our one foundation, who is not a what, nor a when nor a where nor even a why. The heart of our faith is the person of Jesus Christ, true God and truly human.

Article 4 of our Secular Franciscan Rule tells us: “The rule and life of the Secular Franciscans is this: to observe the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by following the example of St. Francis of Assisi who made Christ the inspiration and the center of his life with God and people. Christ, the gift of the Father’s love, is the way to him, the truth into which the Holy Spirit leads us, and the life which he has come to give abundantly.”

Article 5 continues: “Secular Franciscans, therefore, should seek to encounter the living and active person of Christ in their brothers and sisters, in Sacred Scripture, in the Church, and in liturgical activity. The faith of St. Francis, who often said, ‘I see nothing bodily of the Most High Son of God in this world except His most holy body and blood,’ should be the inspiration and pattern of their Eucharistic life.”

The General Constitutions (9.1) follow our Rule: “The spirituality of the Secular Franciscan is a plan of life centered on the person and on the following of Christ, rather than a detailed program to be put into practice.”

Article 10 of the General Constitutions elaborates: “‘Christ, poor and crucified,’ victor over death and risen, the greatest manifestation of the love of God for humanity, is the ‘book’ in which the brothers and sisters, in imitation of Francis, learn the purpose and the way of living, loving, and suffering.”

Whatever “preaching” we may do, whether best by our lives or even by our words, that preaching must start and finish with Christ. Whatever we do, may we never forget Christ.

Let us pray, “Holy Father, through the Holy Spirit, bring us ever closer to your Holy Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. He is ‘the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end’ (Revelation 22:13). He said, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life’ (John 14:6). Our faith is Christ. Our entire Franciscan Way of Life must strive to stay true to Christ, in Christ, with Christ. We pray in faith in the name of your Son Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.”

Reflection Questions

1. Does our religion begin with a what, a where, a when, a why or a who?
2. Who did St. Francis make the inspiration and center of his life, both with God and with people?
3. What, where, when, why, who is the inspiration and center of your life?
4. According the Article Five of the Rule, where might Secular Franciscans FIRST encounter “the living and active person of Christ”?
5. Where, when, how have you best met “the living and active person of Christ”?
6. Where was the only place that St. Francis saw Christ “bodily”?
7. According to the General Constitutions, what is the plan of life for a genuine Secular Franciscan “spirituality”?

This is an excerpt from a series of articles by the late Deacon Tom Bello, OFS, former Minister of the National Secular Franciscan Order – USA.  “Many of these essays were originally published in TAU-USA, our national newsletter,” said Jan Parker, OFS, current National Minister. “They are excellent for reflection and ongoing formation.”  Jan helped Tom publish these  essays in book form.  It is called  For All The Saints:  St. Francis’s Five-Point Plan for Salvation and is available from Tau Publishing. These excerpts will appear several times a week on the Secular Franciscans website.

https://secularfranciscansusa.org/2020/04/17/the-heart-of-our-faith-is-the-person-of-jesus-christ-pg-72-75/