John 20:1a, 2-8
On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene ran and went to Simon-Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and e do not know where they put him." So peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When SImon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.
The Gospel of the Lord.
"and he saw and believed"
'Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person." Pope Benedict XVI. That is why the Evangelist John conveys not an idea but an event.
The Fourth Gospel makes it clear that, although the women, and specifically
Mary Magdalene, were the first to reach the tomb, the Apostles were the first
to enter it and see the evidence that Christ had risen (the empty tomb, the linen
clothes "lying" and the napkin in a place by itself). Bearing witness to this will
be an essential factor in the mission which Christ will entrust to them: "You
shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem ... nd to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8; cf.
Acts 2:32).
"The linen clothes lying there": the Greek participle translated as "lying there"
seems to indicate that the clothes were flattened, deflated, as if they were em-
ptied when the body of Jesus rose and disappeared -- as if it had come out of the
clothes and bandages without their being unrolled, passing right through them
(just as later He entered the Cenacle when the doors were shut). This would
explain the clothes being "fallen", "flat" "lying", which is how the Greek literally
translates, after Jesus' body -- which had filled them -- left them. One can readily
understand how this would amaze a witness, how nforgettable the scene would
be.
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