Acts 10:34, 37-43 / Col 3:1-4 or 1 Cor 5:6-8 / John 20:1-9
Whenever we are told that “what you see is what you get”, the meaning is almost as clear as the sentence.
What we see is almost all that we get to see and there is nothing more to it and we don’t expect anything more than it.
For example, a 5-room flat is a 5-room flat. There are no hidden rooms or extra rooms. A $10 bill is a $10 bill and there is no extra hidden value to it.
But as much as what you see is what you get, there is also the other side of things, and that is “there is more than meets the eye”.
The so-called reality that we see before us may not be all that it is. Because in everything, there is a mystery, in the broadest sense of the word.
And this mystery reveals the reality to what the eye can see, and yet this mystery may also have something more to reveal, such that the mind may take a while to comprehend and to understand.
In the mystery of the Incarnation, God became man in the person of Jesus, people saw Jesus in the flesh, the outward reality.
The people, as well as His disciples, saw how He suffered and died on the cross, as we heard in the readings on Good Friday.
And then in the Resurrection accounts, no one really saw the Risen Jesus. There were accounts of the stone that was rolled away from the tomb and it was an empty tomb.
There were accounts of angels telling the women not to look among the dead for the one who is alive.
The women ran back to tell the apostles but their story was dismissed as pure nonsense and no one believed them.
And then Peter ran to the tomb, saw the binding cloths, but nothing else, and he was just amazed.
Till then, the disciples failed to understand that Jesus must rise from the dead.
And as we gather to celebrate this great feast of Easter, the mystery of the Resurrection comes to us, just as it came to the disciples in the gospel accounts.
We too did not see the Risen Jesus, but we believe from the gospel accounts that He is risen. And blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.
And for the 11 candidates for baptism, they too believe and they are requesting for baptism, and to join us in the family of faith.
Yet the mystery of the Resurrection continues to unfold and to reveal to us who believe that Jesus is risen from the dead.
These 11 candidates for baptism will be baptized with water, and after that when we renew our baptismal promises, we too will be sprinkled with holy water.
The outward sign is that we are sprinkled with holy water, but the inward reality and mystery is that the Risen Jesus comes to wash and cleanse our hearts of all sin and defilement so that we too can rise with Jesus to new life and a higher life.
An imagery that can help in understanding this is that we are like ducks in the pond. On the surface everything is calm and graceful.
But under the water, the duck’s feet are paddling furiously to keep it floating and going.
So there is nothing dramatic about being baptized with holy water or being sprinkled with holy water.
It is all smiles, and everything is peaceful and graceful.
But in our hearts, the Risen Jesus is stirring and waking us up from the slumber of sin and shining the light of His Resurrection into our hearts so that we can turn away from sin and rise with Him to the new life.
That is the reality and the mystery of the Resurrection. Let us believe and we will be amazed at what the Risen Jesus can do for us.