Today’s Gospel verse from Mark brings us back to our discussion on the Resurrection of Jesus. Mark reminds us that his followers saw the first appearances of Jesus as being unbelievable by those who reported he had risen. Fr. Rolheiser also reminds us that his crucifixion led to Jesus rising from death. He goes on to say that everything good eventually gets scapegoated and crucified. This perverse dictate, somehow innate within human life, assures that there’s always someone or something that cannot leave well enough alone but must hunt down and lash out at what’s good. What’s good, what’s of God, will always at some point be misunderstood, envied, hated, pursued, falsely accused, and eventually nailed to some cross. All who are in Christ inevitably suffer the same fate as Jesus: death through misunderstanding, ignorance, and jealousy. But there’s a flip side. Resurrection always eventually trumps crucifixion. What’s good ultimately triumphs. Thus, while nothing of God will avoid crucifixion, no one’s body in Christ stays in the tomb for long. God always rolls back the stone, and soon enough, new life bursts forth, and we see why that original life had to be crucified. Resurrection invariably follows crucifixion. Every crucified body will rise again. Our hope takes its root in that, as Bishop Robert Barron notes: “Jesus went all the way down, journeying into pain, despair, alienation, even godforsakenness. Why? In order to reach all of those who had wandered from God. Then, in light of the Resurrection, the first Christians came to know that, even as we run as fast as we can away from the Father, all the way to godforsakenness, we are running into the arms of the Son. The Resurrection shows that Christ can gather back to the Father everyone whom he has embraced through his suffering love.”