Second Sunday of Easter: "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!"

During Holy Week, my sister posted an image to Facebook. The post asked “Why did Jesus fold the napkin?” and went on to explain that the “napkin”—the linen burial cloth placed over Jesus’ face—wasn’t tossed to the side like the other burial cloths. Instead, the gospel of Easter Sunday reported the napkin was “neatly folded” and “separate from the linen wrapping.”

In Jesus’ time, historians teach, a waded napkin left on the table meant “I’m finished.” But, a folded napkin meant “I’ll be returning.”

I responded to the post, stating: “It’s because when Jesus was a kid, Mary taught Jesus that if he left the table and didn’t fold his napkin, she’d slap him silly.” Judging from some of the responses I’ve received, I think too many people today don’t have a sense of humor and take offense all too easily.

With that said, the Catholic evangelist Bishop Robert Barron doesn’t deny what history teaches about the napkin. But, Bishop Barron believes that for the writer of the Gospel of Mark, the napkin may have meant something quite different.

So, what does that belief mean and how might it help us to understand better what constitutes authentic faith?

When people were baptized in the early Church, they removed their clothes—symbolizing “turning away from being the old person of this world”—then waded into the baptistry pool and, upon emerging from it following baptism, the neophytes were dried off and put on a “syndona,” a white cloth—symbolizing having risen to new life and put on the new person now clothed in Christ and member the Kingdom of God.

When we baptize infants today, they’re given a white cloth as the minister says:

[Y]ou have become a new creation, and have clothed yourself in Christ. See in this white garment the outward sign of your inward Christian dignity. With your family and friends to help you by word and example, bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven.

That’s the Church’s hope and for which Her members pray.

However, real-life experience teaches that for many of the baptized, that external white cloth gets hidden away somewhere. More importantly, when their faith is tested, many of the baptized turn their back on their faith and run away into the crowd and the darkness of night, their internal Christian dignity buried in the past.

Consider this snapshot we heard on Palm Sunday: A young man in the Garden of Gesthemane on Holy Thursday night turning his back on Jesus and running away naked into the crowd and disappearing into the darkness.

Bishop Barron believes this “pathetic young man,” having left behind his white garment (“syndona”) in the darkness of night—represents “every one of us sinners, who at the moment of truth, abandon the Lord and run off, leaving our baptismal identity behind.”

Now, consider this second snapshot last Sunday’s gospel offered: When the women arrive at the tomb, they see a young man dressed in a white robe and sitting on the right side. We’re told they were alarmed. But, the young man said: “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there’s the place they laid him.”

It has been speculated that this mysterious young man—wearing a syndona and who announces the Resurrection—is not an angel but the mysterious young man who fled on Holy Thursday night. He has reclaimed his faith and now commissions the women to be heralds of the Risen Lord by going to his disciples and telling them about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

Belief—that Jesus is the Son of God who has risen from the dead—seeking understanding—what it means to live an authentic faith.

This Easter season which consists of 50 days is the time for us to reclaim our faith—to clothe ourselves with the baptismal syndona entrusted to us—with the goal that on Pentecost Sunday when the Risen Lord breathes his Spirit into us anew, we won’t abandon the Risen Lord at the moment of truth and run off leaving Christian dignity behind once again. Instead, we will have prepared ourselves well during these 50 days to be heralds of the Risen Lord “to the ends of the earth,” namely, to the people God is sending us.

During this week, the Church teaches us of the “mysteries” of the Catholic faith that were revealed to neophytes—the recently baptized—that built upon the basic catechesis received when they were preparing for initiation into the faith. For us today, the revelation of those mysteries is intended to move the baptized and confirmed beyond a “childish” knowledge, understanding, and practice of the Catholic faith to a more “child-like” adult knowledge, understanding, and practice of the Catholic faith. This revelation may be wise in that, if the same materials were presented in an adult faith formation series on Wednesday evenings in the parish hall, very few “adult” Catholics would be in attendance.

This week’s mystery directs attention to a foundational element: “Faith.” What is it? What does it require? And: How is it lived?

In today’s gospel, Thomas wasn’t willing to risk believing in the Risen Lord in order to understand what that meant in terms of his priorities in life. No, Thomas wanted the “facts” and to verify those facts, that is, if he was going to believe in the Risen Lord. Thomas didn’t believe “The Lord is risen, yes, he is truly risen!” Skepticism made Thomas cautious: “If the Lord is risen, show me the facts. Until I have them, I won’t believe.”

If I didn’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God who rose from the dead for the forgiveness of sins—think about this—what a fool I would be for wasting my life!

 

Now consider this: A young couple is madly in love and considering marriage. There’s absolutely zero evidence they can point to that they will love, honor, and obey each another all their days of their lives “until death do we part.” In this regard, history is instructive: Every married couple knows that is the truth! However, that encounter called “falling in love” leads young Catholics, for example, to believe that despite all of the statistical evidence indicating the majority of marriages today end up in divorce court, their love will not end and they can commit to the Sacrament of Marriage “until death do we part.” Starting with belief in the possibility they will fulfill their vows (the “holy trinity” of love, honor, and obey), those couples will spend the remainder of their days as a husband and wife developing greater understanding about what they originally believed—they will love, honor, and obey each other—now actually requires of them. As a parishioner once observed to me about what the believing in the “trinity” means:

It took me twenty years to learn that mystery of the Church's faith. Every time my wife points out how wrong I am, just say: “You’re right, Dear.” Once I learned that, problem disappeared.

That kind of encounter also leads many Catholics to view their work not as an income-generating “job” but a “personal vocation”—something God created each of them in his or her own unique way to witness to God through their labor. Beginning in an encounter of a unique person who witnessed to his or her personal vocation that generated an insight into “I think this is what I want to be.” The rigors and challenges of becoming a craftsman over the years will test that belief as this person increasingly understands what’s required to actually be a master craftsman. For Catholics, it’s the belief that God has endowed each human being with a unique and unrepeatable purpose in life as well as the talents and abilities to fulfill that purpose that fuels young Catholics to “make a difference” not by hoping they’ll make a difference but actually committing themselves to do it by understanding what they believe actually requires of them.

Take note: Putting on the Catholic syndona of marriage or a personal vocation, requires translating belief into concreate action so that, when tested, we won’t run away leaving our syndona behind. Instead, we will recommit ourselves to what we believe, given what we understand today based upon real, lived experience. How many marriages fail because one or both spouses leave their syndona behind in the false belief that happiness will be found everywhere else? How many Catholics are unhappy with their jobs, feel unfilled, and look for job satisfaction everywhere else because they’ve left the syndona of their personal vocation behind?

Unless we reclaim our syndona—our Catholic identity—and seek to understand what we believe, reorient our priorities, and then commit to living that way, the faith we possess is inauthentic—“childish,” not “childlike”—and for one reason: It didn’t begin with an encounter of the Risen Lord.

St. John reminded us of this encounter in today’s Epistle:

The one who will be victorious over the world is the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

Today’s readings remind us that a more “childlike,” “adult” authentic faith is the result of an encounter with the Risen Lord—a matter not of “understanding seeking belief” similar using scientific and mathematical proofs to justify what we believe. No, authentic faith is a the result of an encounter with the Risen Lord which reorients our focus in such a way that, of our own volition, we change our priorities—a matter of “belief seeking understanding.”

The Church provides these next 50 days —actually, there's only 42 days remaining—for us to prepare ourselves well to be heralds of the Risen Lord “to the ends of the earth,” that is, to the people God is sending us. But, as today’s readings from scripture remind us, we first need to know, understand, and live an authentic faith where what we believe we seek to understand through our experience today not the words and ideas we were taught as children.

To that end the scriptures for this second Sunday of Easter issue this challenge: To consider what we believe—“Jesus the Son of God who rose from the dead”—and understand what it means in terms of our experience for how we will live our Catholic faith today.

This week, identify a situation where you’ve left behind your baptismal syndona. More times than not, we feel terribly bad and guilty for moral failures like these. But, rather than remaining frozen in the bygone past, use the coming days to reclaim your baptismal syndona. How? Leave all of that behind and travel to the tomb. You’re going to discover the stone covering the entrance has already been rolled back, so, peer inside. And, be prepared for a surprise! What you thought was dead and buried isn’t there because through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, all of that has already been raised to new life! Rediscovering your syndona there and just as the young man in the tomb discovered and then bore witness with great power telling told the women, so also we will know: “The Lord is Risen, indeed he is truly risen!”

This encounter of Divine Mercy will assist each of us during this upcoming week to understand better what we believe, to begin reorienting our priorities, and to do what that requires: To witness to others “This is day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.”

“Blessed are those who have not seen, but still believe!”, the Risen Lord said to Thomas. This second Sunday the Risen Lord tells us “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

Through this belief, as St. John noted in today’s epistle, may each of us understand better at the end of this second week of Easter what it means to have life in his name: “The Lord is Risen, indeed he is truly risen!”