THE SALESIAN BULLETIN MAY - JUNE 2026
RELIVING THE EMMAUS STORY
Meeting Him in Today's World

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MARY EXAMPLE OF AN OPEN AND GIVING HEART - page 6 DON FABIO ATTARD, SDB
THE RISEN JESUS IN TODAY’S WORLD: RELIVING THE EMMAUS STORY - page 8 FR. AMIRTHARAJ AROCKIYAM SDB
CARING FOR THE VULNERABLE: BURDEN OR BLESSING? - page 12 FR. M. JOHN ALEXANDER SDB
BEING PERFECT - page 14 FR. PAUL RAJ AMAL SDB
WOMEN AS LIVING WITNESSES TO RESURRECTION HOPE - page 24 - SR. D.J. MARGARET, FMA

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Editorial
Beyond the Empty Tomb: Recognizing the Risen Presence in Our Time

Recognizing the Risen Presence in Our Time
As Holy Week and Easter approach each year, a familiar digital ritual unfolds. The YouTube algorithm begins to surface a stream of videos—some reverent, some speculative, and some loudly contrarian— questioning the historical reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Titles proclaim with misplaced certainty: “Jesus didn’t really die,” or “There was no resurrection.” For many believers, such disclaims feel empty, repetitive, even banal. They are scrolled past with firm conviction.

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For the Christian believer, the early morning witness of Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb is not merely a symbolic story but a foundational event. The empty tomb is not an abstract metaphor; it is a proclamation that something decisive has occurred in history. Yet to stop there—to reduce Easter to a question of historical verification alone—is to miss its deeper, more transformative implication....

... For some of the great theological minds of the twentieth century, this rediscovery took on a cosmic dimension. Raimon Panikkar spoke of Christophany— the manifestation of Christ in all reality. This vision does not deny the historical Jesus; rather, it expands that history into a living, universal presence. The Risen Christ is not only someone who was but someone who is—shining through creation, relationship, and consciousness itself.

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Similarly, Karl Rahner issued a striking warning: “The Christian of the future will be a mystic, or he will not exist at all.” In other words, inherited belief is no longer sufficient. What is required is experience—a direct, interior awareness of the living Christ. This mystical dimension is not an escape from the world; it is a deeper immersion into it. It allows us to see the sacred shimmering within the ordinary.

To believe in the resurrection, then, is not merely to affirm a past miracle. It is to enter into a transformed way of seeing. It is to recognise that every moment carries the possibility of encounter, that every person bears a trace of the divine, and that every corner of creation is suffused with presence.

Fr. Amirtharaj Arockiyam SDB,
Editor.