George Pattery S J

It is believed that Mary went to the tomb on the following day morning, as was the custom of those days, to anoint the body of Jesus: nothing unusual, nothing memorable!
However, going to the tomb of a criminal, crucified for treason, according to the imperial Roman law, and on Golgotha accused of blasphemy, according to the Jewish law, was not just a pious act. To go to the tomb of such a criminal, a subversive person, was a daring act, for a woman like Mary. She was, and became again suspect in the eyes of the ruling class, although today she is acclaimed as the apostle of the apostles. She dared to be different. She began to see things differently. The risen one made her see things differently and refreshingly new. The men-folk – the disciples – so familiar to Jesus, considered it to be prudent, and reasonable to remain quiet and in hiding, in order to be out of trouble. They chose to be safe and alive. Yet when they were approached by this woman, they obliged to verify the claim of an empty tomb.
They rushed to the tomb, and found the tomb empty, and nothing more. They looked for the body in vain. Assuming that Mary was Magdalene, the sinful one, who experienced the tender love of Jesus, did these men believe her and follow her? Perhaps they knew that she was close to Jesus and his way. He was alive to her.

A Dangerous life that led to a cruel death
The time of Jesus was very special. According to Walter Wink, it was marked by messianic dreams, millennial fantasies, mystical revelations, suicidal nationalism, and dominant religious narrative. Hellenized Roman Empire in Jerusalem met with a monotheistic Judaism that had absorbed many traditions of Babylonia, Persia, Greek, Roman influences, and yet fiercely retained its own identity. They were looking for a definitive messianic rule.
Jesus enters this world with an authenticity, and personal authority, not known to them, especially to those on the margins: the lame, the blind, the dumb, the deaf, the publicans and sinners. Jesus reached out to them; they felt accepted, and found a place at his open table-fellowship. This was possible because Jesus often moved along the geographical margins: at the seashores, on the mountains, on the roadside, at the well, where the marginal people are found. In short, it was ‘God’s gamble with humanity that it becomes more humane in and through Jesus (Walter Wink)

The Insider- Outsider syndrome
The gospels tell us that on several occasions (Markan predictions of the passion in Chs 8,9,10) Jesus talked about his end days, and that Jerusalem would be the goal of his journey. The disciples did not quite understand, accept or envisage Jesus’ end-time. They looked for a different end: a true messianic end in political power and religious glory, minus the paschal way. When Peter verbalized those aspirations, he was reprimanded, and was even called ‘Satan’ by Jesus!
Jesus lived dangerously: he challenged the purity–pollution theories with regard to people (deformed people like the lame, the dump), with regard to place (Samaria and non-Jewish territory), with regard to gender (women in general and specially menstruating women), with regard to time (healing on a Sabbath). Jesus ate with publicans, sinners and women – the table-fellowship was an open table where all were invited, to a non-discriminating space. People from north and south, east and west could join in. This infuriated Jewish leadership. Jesus, through his healing ministry, through the table-fellowship and his teaching by means of parables, redefined the people of God: Not in Jewish lineage through blood relationship, but in doing God’s will – his Abba. The Jewish leadership could not accept this. Jesus had to be eliminated for the sake of their religion and social set up.
At the end of the gospels, the apostles who were ‘insiders’ of Jesus’ company, in fact became ‘outsiders’ and practically invisible; the Roman centurion in Golgotha, an outsider becomes in fact an insider. The Syro-phoenician woman, an outsider, turns out to be an insider at the end of the narrative; the Samaritan woman, an outsider becomes a self-proclaimed insider.
Notwithstanding this challenging dynamics of the gospels, and the timidity of the apostles, the risen Lord goes in search of the apostles, to the places of their struggle, sorrow and fear. Jesus does not chastise them; nor does he question them on their behavior. He becomes the transforming presence, that gathers the community together, especially at sea-shores of Tiberius and on the road to Emmaus.

Synodal church-breakfast at the shores of Tiberius today.
Today when the risen Lord meets us at the shores of Tiberius, who would be sitting with him for breakfast? The Rohingyas of Myanmar, wandering on the earth without any asylum? The North Africans crossing the Mediterranean, many of whom perishing in the seas in their struggle to reach Europe, the land of their one-time slave masters? The South Americans fighting for a democratic set up beyond the oligarchy of the rich Christian families and the military? Will there be women at the breaking of bread, who are denied their rightful place in the church and in civil society? Who will bring the warring factions in Europe to the breakfast at Tiberius? The inter-national bodies look incapable of stopping the war between Ukraine and Russia. What does the helplessness of the so-called Christian nations speak of their hyper-nationalism that is never called into question?

Emmaus walk of the Syro-Malabar Church in search of itself
Born and brought up in Kerala, I was always fond of the rich traditions and strength of the believing community of the Syro-Malabar church. It was a joy to find a vibrant Christian group that was alive and kicking, and contributing to education and health-care of the larger society. It had a name and fame that was genuine, I thought.
However, the recent happenings in Syro-Malabar church are disgusting, to say the least. Court cases on financial dealings, police protection for celebrating the Eucharist, open physical fight in the Cathedral church, authoritarian approach to implement a synodal decision taken sometimes in the past, etc. Social media have it to their content. All these in the name of a marginal Jew called Jesus whom we proclaim as the ‘self-emptying’ phase of God. Who are we? Chaldeans, Syrians, Keralites, Indians, or are we primarily Christians, born out of the empty tomb? Where are the numerous charismatic retreat centres that claimed instant healing?
Can the fighting groups of the Syro-Malabar church, (it looks to me that the issue is the creation of the all-powerful hierarchy), undertake an Emmaus walk? Can they talk to each other about all these things that had happened? What did they had hope for? Can they learn to listen to one another without the burden of the ‘might’ of clericalism, and the tangled knots of immutable tradition? Can they recall and relive the enthusiastic and exemplary collaboration during the floods (pralayam) and Covid-19? Didn’t we learn that no more we-they, but us: we are fundamentally inter-related and inter-dependent on one another and on all. Can we create a space between us for a third party (the transforming presence of the Lord – TPL) to join in? Can the third party open the scriptures for us? Can we not review a one-time decision in the light of the nuances we perceive through the third person? Can we listen to each other till late into the night, leading to the breaking of bread? Can we arrive at a recognition that ‘discernment’ is a process (not frozen in a one-time event) that might reverse our steps back to Jerusalem? Can we not find real seekers around us engaged in similar processes? Can we gather our lay companions, our parents and siblings, the consecrated men and women, and re-enter the process of discernment, to learn to break bread together? Can we insist on the third person to stay back, to break bread together that might lead to a new recognition, even to go back to ‘Jerusalem’? Can the Easter woman teach us to imagine, rather than to argue and score points?
Imagine! Imagine! Imagine!