Easter in Matthew Scripture

Continuing his monthly series, David Breen gives historical and cultural background to the Easter mystery.

The Gospels announce the resurrection of Jesus but don’t describe or explain it. The event is at the heart of the Gospel – indeed, without the resurrection there is no gospel – but what actually happened remains a mystery as the ‘resurrection is not something open to human experience’ (Garland).

In Matthew’s Gospel Mary Magdalene and the other Mary are the central witnesses to the passion and resurrection narratives. They had seen Jesus die and watched him being buried (27:57, 61). Now they are the first witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection. Together they meet the Jewish requirement that everything had to be established by two or three witnesses. The unexpected detail is that in choosing the first witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection God chose women, subverting the cultural belief that the testimony of women was unreliable. It also argues for the historical truth of the resurrection, because if it were a later creation of the Church, as some assert, the primary witnesses would have been male.

In biblical narratives special attention should be paid to both the beginning and the ending of the story to see if there are any correspondences between them. In Matthew’s Gospel there are some.

Both the beginning and ending contain two important angelic announce- ments, imparting privileged information about divine activity that is otherwise inaccessible to the characters in the story. They provide news of Jesus’ miraculous conception and of his resurrection and give specific instructions on what to do in response. Joseph is told to marry Mary; the two Marys are sent to the apostles with instructions to return to Galilee where they will meet Jesus. The worship of the risen Jesus by the two Marys when they encounter him while racing to the disciples with the news and the angels’ instructions corresponds to the worship of the child Jesus by gentile Magi in Matthew 2:2, 11. Their worship indicates the proper stance towards the risen Lord.

In biblical stories angelophanies always produce fear, as is the case here with the two Marys and the Roman guards. The latter were so terrified by his appearance and strength in rolling away the stone sealing the tomb that they ‘became like dead men’ (v. 4), but the women received the customary angelic greeting, ‘Fear not’ along with the news that Jesus the crucified one was not in the tomb but had been raised ‘just as he said’. The use of the passive voice indicates that the resurrection was the Father’s action, overturning the judgement on Jesus by the Jewish and Roman leadership.

The descent of the angel was ac- companied by an earthquake. Matthew mentions earthquakes in apocalyptic contexts such as the eschatological (end time) discourse (24:7) and the resurrection of the saints following the crucifixion (27:53). Here it marks the resurrection as an apocalyptical event. The time when God acts decisively to set everything right has begun (Heb 1:2).

There is an interesting parallel and contrast between the soldiers present at the crucifixion (27:54) and those guarding the tomb. Both experienced an earthquake, and both were terrified. The former acknowledged Jesus as God’s son (27:54). The others made no such acknowledgement and ‘became like dead men’ (v. 4) For them the angel had no word of assurance.

The opening of the tomb was not to let Jesus out, but to enable the women to see that it was empty because the resurrection had already taken place (v. 6). The empty tomb does not of itself prove the resurrection. Mary Magdalene in John’s Gospel could only conclude that Jesus’ body had been removed (Jn 20:2). Without the explanation of the angel and their encounter with the risen Jesus (v. 9) the empty tomb was an enigma.

While on their way to report to the disciples the two Marys encounter

Jesus who greets them with an equivalent of our ‘hello’. The encounter, more than the empty tomb, is the real evidence of the resurrection, and the women prostrate themselves in worship. This was not a spiritual apparition for they held on to his feet (v. 9). Jesus reaffirmed the angel’s instruction and promise for the disciples (28:7) but referred to them as his brothers. The use of the family metaphor indicates the bond of love and patience Jesus has with them. Peter’s denial and the disciples’ desertion are forgiven and prove to be no barrier to sharing in his mission.

The return to Galilee is a return to where Jesus began his public ministry. It is from here the newly commissioned Church will launch its mission. Christ’s death and resurrection provide an echo of Genesis, suggesting a new beginning/creation has begun. Christ died on the sixth day having completed his work (Jn 19:30). He rested in the grave on the seventh day – the Sabbath. He rose on the first day of the next week creating a new beginning for the world in which death has been overcome and the horizon of human existence has expanded beyond time. The resurrection was an epoch-changing event. It signified that the ‘last days’ had arrived, the time in which God has acted decisively to set everything right. The general resurrection at the return of Christ is tied to it and depends on it. St Paul tells us that Christ is the ‘first fruits of those who have fallen asleep … For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive’ (1Cor 15:20). To believe in the resurrection of Christ is to believe that God will not only triumph over the violent death that reigns in human history but also will triumph over the tragic death to which all life is presently subject. In this comprehensive sense, proclamation of the resurrection of Christ crucified is gospel, good news indeed. The two Marys left the tomb fearful but full of joy, and so should we for God’s new creation has begun.

Courageous Witnesses

Edmund Rice

Brendan Comerford SJ continues his series on Courageous Witnesses with memories of Bl Edmund Ignatius Rice.

Edmund Rice was born on 1 June 1762 on the family property of ‘Westcourt’ in Callan, County Kilkenny, the fourth of seven sons. His parents were Robert Rice and Margaret Tierney. Edmund’s young life was profoundly influenced by an unswerving family loyalty to the Catholic faith. His younger brother, John, would become an Augustinian priest.

The boys of the Rice family obtained education at home through Patrick Grace, a member of a small community of Augustinian friars in Callan. Edmund was then sent to a commercial or secondary school in Kilkenny. He completed his formal education in Kilkenny around 1779 at the age of seventeen. He was then apprenticed to his uncle Michael who owned a merchant business in Waterford, trading livestock and supervising the loading of meat products onto ships bound for the British colonies. Michael Rice died in 1785 and the business passed to Edmund. Edmund was known to be a successful businessman, respected and admired throughout the city.

About 1785, Edmund married Mary Elliott. Mary died in 1789 as the result of an unspecified accident. There was one daughter from the marriage, also called Mary. Little is known of her other than that she died in Carrick-on-Suir on 23 January 1859.

It was Edmund’s practice to begin his day by attending Mass at 6 in the morning. He received Communion frequently, if not daily, a practice which was uncommon at the time. In his spiritual reading, the Bible played an important part. When his day’s work was done, he spent hours in the slums of Waterford, and his companions were mainly small children whom he brought to his home for food and instruction in religious and secular matters.

In 1793, Edmund set about disposing of his business interests. He arranged for his step-sister, Joan Murphy, and his daughter to go to relations in Callan. A large stable in the New Street area of Waterford had become his property following the death of his wife, and he converted this two-storey building into a school. He opened up the New Street stable as a night school.

Thomas Grosvenor and Patrick Finn, both from Callan, were eager to consecrate their lives to God, and consulted the Augustinian, Fr John Rice (Edmund’s brother). Fr John Rice advised them to spend some time with Edmund before they reached a final decision. They came to New Street to help Edmund with the teaching but also to join him in the religious congregation he wished to establish. So many new students came to the school that an additional small school was opened in nearby Stephen Street.

In June 1802 work began on building a monastery on an elevated site in a working-class side of Waterford. The building was funded out of Edmund’s private resources and comprised living accommodation and a school. The school was given the name ‘Mount Sion’.

Edmund and his two companions were joined by a fourth, John Mulcahy. By 1808, seven of the staff, including Edmund Rice, took religious vows under the authority of Bishop Power of Waterford. Their religious life took its pattern from the Rule that governed the Presentation Sisters. They were called the Presentation Brothers.

On 15 August 1809, after an eightday retreat, and again in the presence of Bishop Power, Edmund and his companions made perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and pledged themselves to the instruction of poor boys and each adopted a religious name. Edmund Rice became Brother Ignatius after St Ignatius Loyola.

The next twenty years would see schools founded in Carrick-on-Suir, Dungarvan, Cork, Dublin, Cappoquin, Limerick and, in England, Preston, Manchester, Sunderland and Liverpool. Brothers went to Australia in 1842.

The communities were under the control of the local bishop rather than that of Edmund Rice. This created problems when Brothers were needed to be transferred from one school to another. Edmund sought approval from Pope Pius VII for the Brothers to be made into a pontifical congregation (directly under the authority of the Vatican) with a superior general. Edmund obtained this approval on 5 September, 1820. The superiors of the various houses were to elect a superior general. Edmund held this post from 1822 to 1838. He was then able to move Brothers across diocesan boundaries to wherever they were needed.

The bishops of Waterford and Cork were against the Papal Brief – they wanted to maintain their authority over the Brothers. A copy of the Papal Brief was sent to every Brother and a meeting of those who had taken perpetual vows was arranged for Thurles in August 1821. It was significant that no Brother from Cork was present. The bishop of Cork, Dr Murphy, was intractably opposed to all non-diocesan institutions – he seems to have been more interested in maintaining his authority over them! Dr Murphy appealed successfully to one member of the Institute who had not yet accepted the Papal Brief, Brother Michael Austin Riordan. This was the beginning of the Presentation Brothers in 1827 – in later years, the Presentation Brothers also sought and obtained a Papal Brief.

In the 1820s further difficulties emerged owing to the expansion of the society and its becoming two distinct congregations. From this time on they were called Christian Brothers and the Presentation Brothers. Both look on Edmund Rice as their founder.

From 1838 onwards, Edmund retired to Mount Sion in Waterford. He dealt with increasingly painful arthritis and would sit in the garden saying the Rosary and reading the Bible or some other spiritual book. When his eyesight failed, he listened quietly while a Brother read to him. Edmund was especially attached to the writings of Teresa of Avila.

In 1842, his mental faculties began to fail and, apart from some lucid periods which grew less frequent, he lived in a state of semi-coma. He died on 29 August 1844, aged eighty-two. Edmund was beatified on 6 October 1996 by Pope St John Paul II. His official feast day is 5 May.