He came back! 

 

He came back!  

You came back! Those words, I believe, are the most beautiful and joyous in the English language.  You came back! When I was around 6 or 7 years old, Mom found a job that required her to leave home and live closer to work.  She told my siblings and me that she would be gone during the week and back on the weekend.  I was fine with it until the day she left.  We took her to the bus station, and I cried and cried. “Mom, please don’t go,” I pleaded.  “Son, we talked about this already, right?  I have to go, but I will come back. I promise,” she said. 

 

Well, I was not a happy camper.  As I have shared in the past, I was not always a good boy.  I was a little bit of a rascal.  I gave my siblings and my grandparents a challenging time.  I threw tantrums.   

 

One day I cried and cried because I did not get what I wanted.  I cried until I was exhausted and fell asleep.  No one woke me.   And then I heard a familiar voice.  It was the voice of my mother.  I got out of bed and slowly opened the door.  I saw Mom and I kept saying softly to nobody in particular, “You came back!  You came back!” You see, I thought Mom left me and would not be true to her words. That is why I said earlier that the most beautiful and joyous words in the English language are, “You came back!”  

 

On that first Easter morning, I wonder if any of the disciples of Jesus whispered those words under their breath. YOU CAME BACK! Let us remember nobody expected the resurrection.  Nothing in this life could have prepared those disciples for what they encountered in the cemetery that morning.   The gospel stories tell us that they simply did not understand what rising from the dead meant.  Perhaps that is the reason why they were puzzled, shaken with fear, part of the reason they did not expect an empty tomb.  

 

But on the other hand, from the very beginning of the beginning, God made it clear that He is in the business of life, not death. After all, what is the very thing God does in the book of Genesis? God creates life. And if you keep reading the scriptures, even with a passing interest, you will see that God is constantly creating life, preserving life, restoring life, working to loosen death’s grip on the human family.  

 

From the beginning, God acts to break the power of death.  And yet every time when human beings are convinced that God has abandoned them to the power of death and suffering, guess what happens?  God comes back! And God comes back to give life.  

 

When we read the gospels, we find that throughout the life and ministry of Jesus, our Savior showed us that God always comes back. And God comes to give us life. Every action of Jesus, therefore, should prepare us for the empty tomb.  In the person of Jesus, God comes back to unravel death and restore life – to the poor and the powerless, the sick and the sinner, the hungry and the oppressed, to the  blind and the lame, the lepers and the lowly. He comes back.  

 

Someday, we will live as though we actually believe this good news.   God is in the resurrection business.  He has been from the beginning.  And once you understand this, you must ask yourself, how could the tomb be anything other than empty?  God did with dead Jesus what God wants to do with all of us every day.  

 

Easter is not just history; it is the mystery that you and I are baptized to share.  Like the panicked-stricken, young boy, there are days when I still tremble in the face of what looks like death’s victory – the victory of darkness, the fear that I am being left behind permanently.  There are days and seasons when I feel as though God has left for good and I am stuck with no one and nothing but my grief.   The point is whenever you and I stand weeping at the darkened tombs of our lives, whenever you and I feel beaten down by death or sickness or depression or loss or fear or pain or whenever we feel powerless and abandoned, guess what happens?  God comes back.  

 

For three years we have lived in the darkness of the pandemic.  We were in lockdown.  People lost their jobs.  We were not able to see our loved ones.  Millions of people died.  Some were losing hope. But God came back.  Now we are able to gather again, travel again, see our loved ones, talk with one another, see each other’s faces.  

 

Some of you might remember my friend, Veronica.  In a past homily, I shared her story when her husband and daughter had strokes, just a day apart.  And now she is the one recovering from a heart attack.  Although it is unimaginable, she texted me the other day and told me how God always comes to the rescue.  “God came to give me strength and courage once again.  This too shall pass,” she said.  

 

The male disciples in the gospels did not believe the women when they first announced the resurrection.  Do you believe them?   The wisdom of this world tells us that death gets the last word.  The wisdom of the world tells us that life is full of meaningless suffering and once you are in the tomb you are going to stay there.  But to those who pay attention, there is a different message, a beautiful message on this Easter day that comes roaring out to us from that empty tomb.  Jesus died and Jesus came back to give us life.