If someone were to tell you that the tomb of Jesus is empty, you will not be surprised, won’t you? There is no need of any faith to believe that. You can go to the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and see for yourself. All of us can share that experience. But for somebody to say that Jesus is alive, that he has met Jesus, even three days after His burial, that is no common experience at all!

Do you blame anybody who does not have that experience? It is not in our power to make such an experience, is it? There is no where you can go to make it, to acquire it, or to buy it! No wonder it is so difficult for somebody who believes and somebody who does not to connect. Of course, they can connect on the level of human experience. On that level yes, but on the other level, they will be like two people speaking two different languages.

Well, not exactly, a sincere person who really made an experience of faith, should not only be able to speak the language of faith, but also the human language of doubt, of fear, of uncertainty. No man is born with faith. Faith is an experience that can only be done after one has struggled with doubt, darkness, the unknown, fear and uncertainty.

Jesus is the only One who can speak about the experience of the Resurrection, and the language of New Life. But He can, if He wants, speak also our own language of doubt, of abandonment, of solitude, of darkness, of the uncertainty of death. Yes, He can because He went through it as a human being nailed to the cross.

I trust He still does it. He did it with a group of women who followed Him and served Him; He did it with two of His disciples on their way back home to Emmaus;… He did it with me!

Jesus enters to meet us when we are enclosed within ourselves; He enters our thick darkness and finds a way to connect with us through the confusion of our doubts. He abase Himself to lift us up! When we have lost all hope in life, when we feel stolen of our dignity, when our self esteem is destructed, He renders Himself stupid, ignorant, receptive for the most basic needs.

This is how much Jesus believes in humanity! Even the most despaired human being can contribute something to someone. Even the life of someone for whom there is no hope of living, can be of benefit for someone else. Meeting Jesus, so humble as to pretend to be in a worse situation than ours – as in fact He did experience at the end of His life, when “He became sin for us -, makes you feel as if your darkness is being pierced by a fine ray of light.

It is enough light to ignite deep within you such an eagerness for enlightenment. For Jesus, that is enough for Him to start overcoming the darkness of the soul with the armor of His Word. It is only the Word of God that can make us see beyond the capabilities of the human eye. It is only the Word of God that can make experience the mystery hidden in the most common things of life, such as the Bread and Wine.

It is not enough to know about God and religion – whatever name does your God or religion has -. Unless you experience Him – and you, we, all of us, can experience only the One and True God: Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the One and Only Savior of humanity, Who was, is, and is to come -, we would only be able to connect through our common human experience. We hope that some day, we would be able to connect even through the experience of Jesus.

Contact Fr Paul Fenech.