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Easter Day 2026
Although I am not generally a big fan of whodunnits, I must admit I like very much the Easter morning whodunnit which St John offers us in today’s gospel. It begins with an empty tomb and a missing corpse, which is of course very exciting.
The first on the spot is St Mary Magdalene. She is a great saint, certainly, but I don’t recommend that you hire her as a private detective. She panics and runs away, telling everyone that “they have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him”. Who are these they? She does not say. She can be thinking of the Romans, or, more probably, of those Jews who are enemies of Jesus. When you think of it, this does not make any sense. Who among those groups would like to see Jesus’ body disappear? Let it rather decay quietly in the tomb.
St Peter arrives and enters the tomb. You immediately feel that this man knows his job. He checks the facts. He inspects everything thoroughly. He keeps calm and very much in control. You are full of expectation, but after a while he goes out. He does not seem to reach any conclusion, which is slightly disappointing from a future first pope, isn’t it?
Thank God, St John comes in. He does not move a lot. He says nothing, but you can see in his eyes that he has understood everything. “The other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed.” For him, things are clear. There is no mystery. Or rather – there is the Mystery (with a capital M). He has identified the secret Actor whose intervention explains everything.
In a whodunnit, this is the point when you begin to be even more excited. The solution seems obvious to one of the characters, but you, on your side, only guess it without being sure. You need some more explanations.
Don’t turn to John. He has understood but He won’t say a word. He has seen the mystery and he has entered it. By his faith, he is on the side of the resurrection. He beckons to you. He invites you. He draws you after him. But he will not explain.
Peter is much more helpful. We heard him in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. “They put him to death by hanging him on a tree” – this time, it is very clear who they are; we know them, the Jews who accused Jesus and the Romans who crucified him. “But God raised him on the third day”. Here we are. We have the culprit. He did it because He alone could do it who is the author of life, the God of Israel and the Father of Jesus. The empty tomb and the missing corpse point to Him: to His power, to His love, to His passion for life, to His indefatigable desire to bless life with an eternal blessing. He is the living God, the God who hates death because He lives for ever and wants us all to be fully alive and to share in His life.
Is that all? Shall we close the book. Not yet. Bear with me a moment, there is something even better. Peter explains that the apostles have been “chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after He rose from the dead”. What? A second culprit? Yes, that is what makes this whodunnit quite extraordinary. We already know that the Father raised the body of Jesus from the dead. But now we are told that Jesus Himself rose from the dead. By which power? Obviously by the one power of God which He enjoys in His unique identity of eternal Son of the eternal Father!
What makes this empty tomb so uniquely interesting is that it does not witness to the resurrection of a dead human body only. Lazarus’ resurrection had already witnessed to the power of God to raise from death to life. This empty tomb manifests the unique identity of the one who laid in the tomb. He was the man Jesus who was hanged on the cross and He was the Son of God, the one who is the Resurrection and the Life.
Let me sum up: no corpse; one resurrection; two divine persons; one God. When you close to book, you inevitably continue thinking of this for a while. This is precisely what St Mary Magdalene did. She might have been a poor detective, but she was a perfect disciple. She had a heart which resonated with the truth of God. She remained near the tomb, pondering in her heart what she had witnessed. The deeper she entered the Mystery, the greater it seemed to grow. As her heart went to her great master and friend, Jesus, she kept entering the silent dialogue between the Father and the Son, and while she did so, the Spirit of God rested on her.
May the Holy Trinity, in whose Mystery Jesus’ body was raised from the dead and we have been baptised, become ever more during this Eastertide the homeland of our hearts, the source of all hope, the wellspring of universal love. Amen. Alleluia.