Looking for Christ in all the wrong places: the lesson of the empty tomb

Here’s one of my favorite passages from Louis-Marie Chauvet’s The Sacraments: The Word of God at the Mercy of the Body:

You cannot arrive at the recognition of the risen Jesus unless you renounce seeing/touching/finding him by undeniable proofs. Faith begins precisely with such a renunciation of the immediacy of the see/know and with the assent to the mediation of the church. (25)

Today, let us stop looking for a corpse and see where Christ has been risen indeed: in the Word, in the sacraments, in the least among us, in one another, in the cross we refuse to embrace, in our “anything and anyone but,” in those who are most unlike ourselves. For there is a direct connection between dirty feet to wash, unbearable crosses to carry, empty tombs to leave, and the Eucharist we share. The lesson we must continue to learn from the Triduum is this: One cannot say “amen” to the Body and Blood of Christ without saying amen to the others.

Diana Macalintal

Diana Macalintal is the Director of Worship for the Diocese of San Jose in California and holds a Master of Arts in Theology, cum laude, from Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota. She has served as a liturgist, music, and catechumenate director in campus, parish, and diocesan ministries for over 25 years and has authored numerous articles on liturgy, music, and the catechumenate. She was a contributing author for <em>The Catholic Connections Handbook for Middle Schoolers</em> and wrote <em>The Eucharist Catechist's Guide</em> (both Saint Mary's Press, 2009). She is an adjunct faculty member of the Institute in Pastoral Ministries of Saint Mary's University of Minnesota (Winona) and serves as a team member of the North American Forum on the Catechumenate. She founded and maintains a blog for the Diocese of San Jose called "Work of the People" and is a co-founder of TeamRCIA.com.

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3 responses to “Looking for Christ in all the wrong places: the lesson of the empty tomb”

  1. Jeff Rexhausen

    Thank you, Diana, for connecting Eucharist to all of the other elements of the Triduum.

    Your words have touched my heart with a prophetic message. What does the risen Jesus call me to?

    If I am to “say ‘amen’ to the Body and Blood of Christ,” then I must say amen to the body and blood of all those around me
    – Washing the feet of the homeless,
    – Carrying the cross of the suffering, and
    – On and on and on.

    And I must leave the tombs of death, especially
    – The deadly words I often use to condemn others,
    – The deadly acts of my “things” from those who have less, and
    – My own fears and doubts and feelings of unworthiness.

    This Easter season, may God inspire each of us to enlarge the scope of our “Amen.”

    Reply
  2. Steve Adams

    Amen!

    Reply
  3. Karl Liam Saur

    Unlike certainty, faith (trust) and hope and love can only thrive where there’s a gap. With the certainty that arises in the absence of a gap, relationships become transactional and mechanistic.

    Christ is risen!

    Reply

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