When considering all the post-resurrection actions of Christ, we naturally tend to focus on what we may call “major events” such as granting the Apostles the authority to forgive sins (Jn 20:23), celebrating the Eucharist with the disciples who were on the road to Emmaus (Lk 24:30), or commissioning the Church to preach the gospel to all nations (Mt 28:19).
But some of my favorite aspects of the disciples’ encounters with the Risen Christ are what we might consider to be rather mundane details. An example would be Luke’s account of Jesus asking the disciples if they have anything to eat (Lk 24:41). In John’s gospel we find the Lord reclining by a charcoal fire and eating breakfast on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (Jn 21:12). Rising from the dead must give one quite an appetite!
The fact that the gospel writers chose to include small details such as Jesus eating baked fish serve a similar purpose as His inviting Thomas to touch the wound in His side (Jn 20:27). They demonstrate that the resurrection was a physical event. This was no ghost or apparition that the disciples were seeing. The same body that hung on the cross and was buried in the tomb was standing before them. This was Jesus in the flesh, and He was hungry!
The physical resurrection is a fundamental tenet of the Catholic faith. Every time we recite the Apostles’ Creed we profess our faith in the resurrection of the body. It is also an article of the faith that after His resurrection Christ’s body was glorified. The Catechism states: “Christ’s Resurrection was not a return to earthly life ... (but) is essentially different. In His risen body He passes from the state of death to another life beyond time and space” (CCC 646).
In His glorified state, Christ is the first fruit of the future resurrection that will take place at the end of time when the souls of all the departed will be reunited with their bodies, either to share eternal life with Christ in glory or to depart into eternal death. We rightfully associate Christ’s glorified body with divinity. But that can also make the glorified Christ seem rather disassociated with this world. The mundane details of the resurrection accounts are therefore more than testimonies to the physicality of His resurrection. They are also important reminders of the humanity of the glorified Christ.
With this in mind, I was struck this Easter by a small detail in John’s account of the empty tomb. When Peter entered, he “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” (Jn 20:6-7). The cloth covering Jesus’ head would have been something called a “sudarium” and was distinct from the larger burial shroud that would have covered the entire body. What Peter witnessed was these two separate cloths not thrown onto the floor, but neatly and intentionally arranged, presumably by the Risen Lord Himself.
What does this tell us? It suggests that after undergoing His great passion, passing through the gates of death to consummate His priestly offering of Himself to the Father for the redemption of mankind, descending into hell to free the souls of the righteous departed, rescuing us from slavery to sin, definitively conquering death and finally rising from the tomb in glory, the first thing our Savior did was make His bed. I find that incredible. And also very comforting.
Making your bed. Brushing your teeth. Cooking a meal. Washing the dishes. Folding the laundry. Little tasks such as these fill our daily lives, and sometimes they can feel like a drudgery. By performing such tasks with care even in His glorified state, Our Lord shows us that holiness is not separate from ordinary life. It is not necessary for us to escape our everyday duties to attain sanctity. To become a saint we don’t have to establish a religious order or throw ourselves before the lions in the Colosseum. Our everyday life becomes holy if we “do small things with great love,” as St. Teresa of Calcutta said.
I don’t know whether Mother Teresa ever read “The Practice of the Presence of God,” but in this spiritual classic Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection reminds us that “our sanctification (does) not depend upon changing our works, but in doing that for God’s sake which we commonly do for our own.” Therefore “we ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.” We are not all called to perform great tasks, but we are all called to great holiness. By showing us in His glorified state the great dignity of small everyday tasks, Our Lord reminds us that holiness is within reach of us all.
When I think of Jesus standing quietly in the tomb after He resurrected, neatly folding the linen cloths that had covered His precious body, I am reminded of the priest or deacon at the altar folding the corporal cloth upon which His Body lay in the Eucharist. Amid the Mass, it seems like a small thing. But when performed with love and care, small things become imbued with sanctity. Do I take the same care when folding my laundry at home? Do I wash my family’s dishes with the same devotion as when I cleanse the sacred vessels at Mass? I have to say no, but I would no doubt be holier if I did.
Father, forgive me, for I have sinned. I’ve never liked making my bed. It always seemed like a wasted effort since it would only be unmade again that night. My attitude has always been, “why bother?” But Christ shows us by His example that no effort, no matter how small, is wasted when done with love.
Deacon Matthew Newsome is the Catholic campus minister at Western Carolina University and the regional faith formation coordinator for the Smoky Mountain Vicariate.