As I was watching the news on Friday evening, I was not surprised that the network carried a story with pictures of the reenactment of the crucifixion that is annually carried out in the Latino neighborhoods of Chicago. It is an annual event. Even though I am spending the Triduum in Naperville where I am presiding at the liturgies for St. Patrick Residence (Nursing Home), I am sure that someone dressed like Jesus with a cross on his shoulder walked past the friary on Friday.
There was also a story about the fact that Sunday night will feature the next installment of the religious drama that has appeared in the last few years. This year will focus on the Acts of the Apostles. It is entitled “A.D.” As the newscaster read the story, she made reference to the millions of Bibles that have been sold. It is, in fact, the most popular book ever published.
Commentators are always looking for a way to present us with the “condensed” version of the Bible. The stories we read in the Bible are often fascinating especially when they tell of miraculous events such as the sun standing still or of the waters of the Red Sea parting allowing the children of Israel to walk through it. However, what do the individual stories, the prophecies and the various wisdom tracts try to convey as a whole? Is there a simple way to characterize the Bible?
One way to characterize it is to call it the story of our salvation history. God set a plan in motion as soon as it became necessary to “redeem” the human race.
Another way to synthesize the message would be to say that it is a romance, the story of the love affair between God and the human race. Like any good romance, it contains stories of people who reciprocate that love as well as those who reject it.
Lately, I have been focusing on the Scriptures as the recorded history of the struggle between life and death. As I grow older, I am becoming more and more aware of my mortality. Throughout the Scriptures, but especially in the Gospels, I have been reading of the constant struggle between life and death as it has been experienced by people of faith as well as those who fail to believe.
Tonight as I preside at the Easter Vigil, the story will come alive again. He who was dead now lives again. He promises those of us who believe and who come to the font of baptism that we will also never die. He has died for us so that we will live forever. His tomb is empty which means it is not really a tomb at all. Rather it is the gateway to life. Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved will enter the tomb and discover that death is vanquished. The stone has been rolled away allowing all who believe to enter and find life in our Lord Jesus.
Happy Easter to all of my family, my friends, and my fellow CUSANS.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator