6th Sunday of Easter: The Face of the Risen Christ

When I visited the Redemptorist church in Tacloban on January 2014, two months after super-typhoon Yolanda struck Tacloban in November 2013, I still saw a lot of traces of the devastation. But one image that immediately caught my attention was the image above–a headless risen Christ. Immediately I asked: Where is the head of Christ?

Fr. Edwin Bacaltos, the rector of the Redemptorist church at that time explained to me that the head of Christ was blown away by the mighty wind of Yolanda. When they reinstated the statue, they did not bring back the head to remind them of the devastation of Yolanda. But more importantly, this was to symbolize that the head and face of Christ can now be seen in the faces of many people who came to the aid of the many thousands of victims of the typhoon and the people who helped rebuilding the church and its surroundings after the typhoon.

In today’s gospel of the 6th Sunday of Easter, Jesus was bidding goodbye to his disciples. Imagine the emotional turmoil inside the disciples; in a short while they will no longer see the face of their master. Next Sunday we will be celebrating Ascension Sunday. Perhaps the disciples were asking: What are we going to do without Jesus? Can we continue the mission of Jesus all alone by ourselves? In this state of emotional distress, Jesus reminds them that he will not abandon them and that he will always be with them. That is why he and the Father will send them the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, they need to remain in him and keep his commandments by loving one another,

“As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.” (John 15: 9 – 10)

By loving one another, other people will know that they are Jesus’ disciples. By the love they show to each other, they will become the faces and body of Jesus in the world in every age. They will continue to see Jesus in the faces of their fellow disciples. The Holy Spirit will be their constant guide and advocate. This is also reiterated in the second reading today in the 1st letter of John:

Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is of God;
everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.
In this way the love of God was revealed to us:
God sent his only Son into the world
so that we might have life through him (1 John 4: 7 – 9).

One might interpret “Love one another” in terms of a distorted understanding of the Hebrew law: love only those who belong to your group and deny or reject the outsiders. In the first reading from Acts, the openness of the Spirit surprised the circumcised believers (Jews) accompanying Peter. They had grown up believing that God favors some people over others.

While Peter was still speaking these things,
the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word.
The circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter
were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit
should have been poured out on the Gentiles also,
for they could hear them speaking in tongues and glorifying God (Acts 10: 44 – 46).

Paul proclaimed to the Jews that we are to love everyone without exception, for “God shows no partiality”and we are to pattern our love after God’s love. They are not unlike the people of our day who look down on others, regarding as inferior all those whom they consider “Gentiles” (outsiders). Such favoritism does not bind the Spirit of God.

The risen Christ has not abandoned his disciples and the church at all times. The Holy Spirit, the bond of the love of the Father and the Son, continues to lead and guide all peoples and the church towards the final fulfillment of God’s kingdom. The disciples and the church, however, need to be faithful to Christ. The church’s fidelity to Christ can be measured by the love they live for one another and by proclaiming the love of God for all especially the most abandoned, marginalized and poorest in the world.

Christ has not left the world.  The face of Jesus can be seen in the world today through the church and all people who shows love and compassion, meet the needs of others, forgive, and share grace and mercy.

Let me end with the words of the 16th Century Roman Catholic Saint and Carmelite nun, Teresa of Avila (1515-82).

“Christ has no body on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good;
and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.”

I am passionate about the intersection between new media and technology. I continue to research and apply new media in theology and vice-versa. I am also a fan of Our Mother of Perpetual Help and her continuing relevance in today’s digital world.
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