Monday in the Octave of Easter
The chief priests hear the account of what happened at the Resurrection and still cannot accept that Jesus is the Son of God! They have seen Jesus perform many wondrous deeds, and now they are told that an angel descended from Heaven like lightning to open the tomb; their reaction should be to question their judgment and reconsider the identity of Jesus. Instead, they hold onto their blind perspective and construct a lie that will keep them from having to admit that they were wrong. They are choosing to ignore reality—to ignore the coming of God among us!—so that they can remain in their position of power and avoid facing the possibility that they judged wrongly.
We often do the same thing. Admitting mistakes and humbling yourself are difficult to do, and it’s not unusual for us to pretend that our mistakes didn’t happen and to even construct lies to explain how we were actually right in the first place. The problem is that the favorable appearances that we construct out of our lives become harder and harder to maintain. It is like a magician who creates an illusion to amaze and impress us. Once the magician has performed his trick, he does not give everyone the chance to inspect the results; he moves on to the next trick and the next props to avoid being caught in the act. Just so, the longer we have to uphold our illusions, the more difficult it is to keep fooling people. Better to simply own up to our mistakes and admit our imperfections than to always be distracting everyone from reality.
Our Lord Jesus told us that the truth would set us free, but we, like the chief priests, are often frightened by the truth because embracing the truth means risking the status quo. Meanwhile, our Savior has prepared for us a life far greater than the imagined life that we have constructed. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. So, if we hide from the truth, we hide from our Lord who loves us and gave his life for us. We can either embrace humility and live in the truth, or we can be separated from our Risen Lord.
Reflection by Fr. Victor Schinstock, OSB
Posted in Article for Easter, Daily Reflections