A: Easter Sunday (12 Apr 2020) - EMPTY RIBBON, EMPTY TOMB (Jn 20:1–9)

9pm, March 26, 1996, some 24 years ago. It was the commencement exercises of my college graduation day. I was at the PICC (Philippine International Convention Center) and seated beside me was my mother who was totally clueless of what would transpire next. She would be climbing up the stage to hang around my neck a gold medal for my academic excellence, but I intentionally did not orient her with this. I was planning to surprise her, to overwhelm her with tears of joy, and to make her be very proud of me. I wanted then to tell the whole world how successful her son had been who would surely earn the envy of everybody. Such was my attitude back then. I didn’t realize that God had something horrid under his sleeves to embarrass and chastise me for my arrogance.

After my jubilant and overjoyed mother hanged around my neck the coveted medal—as I actually had planned to happen—I could see that everybody was looking intently at my neck as I went down the stage. I was thinking then how jealous they might be by the accomplishment I garnered represented by the medal I wore. Still, more and more persons stared at my neck as I headed back my seat. Later did I discover the real reason why they kept on staring down my chin... There was actually no medal dangling on the ribbon; it must have fallen on my way down the stage. In short, what hanged around my neck was only an “empty ribbon.” Caught in a delirium I began to panic and attempted to search the path I trekked looking for my precious one. But my mother simply held me back, and seemingly whispered these loving words, “Forget it, my son, with or without a medal, I know that you worked so hard in college for four years, and I am proud and very happy of what you have done.”

Empty ribbon... True indeed, it is meaningless without the medal. The same is true with an empty tomb... It is nothing without the body of Jesus that had been interred into it (Jn 20:5–7). What value would emptiness be if the thing that makes it meaningful is not visible. But like my mother who did not mind the absence of the medal because she perceived still my diligence behind it, we should not be troubled with Jesus’ absence in the tomb. For behind this privation is a strong belief in his words that he would raise the temple of his body after three days (cf. Jn 2:19). At this moment of confusion, he may probably be speaking to each of his disciples in their hearts, “Forget it, my child, with or without my physical body, I know that you worked so hard following me for three years, and I am proud and very happy of your solid faith in me.”

The doctrine of the resurrection is not a supernatural show, rather it entails our transcendent faith to understand the event of the “empty tomb” as a manifestation of Jesus’ rising into glory. But what does it ought to tell us now? This occurrence assures us that if we Christians have genuine faith, we can still comprehend life’s beauty and God’s presence behind all kinds of emptiness in this world: poverty, misery, violence, catastrophes, and even pandemics. Even this latest emptiness that has beleaguered the whole world today with the rising cases of infections and deaths caused by the COVID-19 can never dampen our hearts. It is because we already embarked on grasping behind and beyond what is perceptible. Instead of seeing fear we see hope. Instead of being disheartened we remain positive that better things are still coming out of the rubbles of defeat.

As we celebrate Easter in these trying times, we are challenged by the “empty tomb” to be beacons of hope. Remember, even behind an empty ribbon, a mother who loves declares her faith in her son. May our love for Jesus animate us also to see hope even behind an empty tomb.

- Rex Fortes, CM