THE  EMPTY  TOMB

I recall a poem, from childhood, penned by John Masefield. Unfortunately I do not recall the title, but I still remember two lines which have been impressed, engraved in my memory. A dialogue between Calpurnia and a Centurion. The lady asks the soldier: ‘Tell me, soldier, where is Jesus, now ?’. The Centurion answers: ‘I don’t know, lady, all I know is that his tomb is empty.’ ‘That’s bad,’, she replies, ‘now the trouble starts.’

This fact, that the tomb of Jesus was found empty, notwithstanding that Roman guards were ordered to watch over it, through out the night and day, has always preoccupied, and still preoccupies His enemies, to this very day.

How they have wished, and still wish, to lay their hands, physically, on Jesus and destroy Him, once and for all. No, I would not describe this Person as elusive, no comparison to the ‘Scarlet Pimpernell’ created by Baroness Orczy. No, Jesus is still here, He is not elusive. Yes, he is in Heaven, He is in Hell, through His justice, wherever you seek Him; here or there. Jesus is always present with us.

But, one thing, His enemies can’t understand, they can’t grasp, that apart from the Blessed Eucharist, Jesus is here, there and everywhere, through the witnessing of His followers, in the persons of the poor, the suffering, the sick, the people forgotten by society, in those dying of hunger and thirst, in those suffering from all sorts of injustice, all round the world.

To make matters worse, for His enemies, He has promised that He will be around till the end of time. Jesus is no more in the tomb, Jesus is here in the presence of His beloved Bride; the Chuch. All those who have watched that wonderful film called ‘The Scarlet and the Black’, starring Gregory Peck as Mons. O’Flagherty, and Christopher Plummer  as the German commandant in charge of Rome during World war II, surely recall that scene in the Colosseum, Rome, where we find the German Commandant, asking, begging the priest to help his family escape from the Allies.

Again, there is a sentence in this famous dialogue, when the German hurls all kinds of accusations against the Church and Priests, but the last sentence, declaration came from the Monsignor, when he said: “The Church will survive to sing a Requiem on her enemies.”

The reason is,  because the Tomb is empty, and JESUS is alive.