Year B Easter

“Hail thee, festival day! Blest day that art hallowed forever; day on which Christ arose, breaking the kingdom of death.”

Alleluia! It is Easter, and we raise our voices in song and think with thanksgiving of the breaking of the kingdom of death. While we marvel and rejoice at Jesus’ resurrection, our minds also flash on the blessing of COVID vaccine, and pray fervently that the deaths from the disease are now on the wane and will soon be gone forever. What a strange mixture – the miraculous and the mundane – but both are thoughts filled with happiness and joy.

As the weather improves and turns to spring, as many more people receive the vaccine, we sigh with relief. But we already know what the dark days feel like. Through the pandemic, we have come to a better understanding of the words “privation”, “suffering”, and “loss”. Sadly many of us have known grief through this time, known the death of friends and loved ones. This Easter we can, more so than ever, understand Mary Magdalene’s feelings as she approaches Jesus’ tomb. We can walk with her, sharing that hollow emptiness one feels when someone deeply respected and dearly loved has died.

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb

Darkness! She must have risen very early in order to go to the tomb alone. Sometimes when we grieve we want privacy – a time to sort through the whirl of feelings we are experiencing. We often use the expression “heavy heart” but the feeling of sorrow can go deep into one’s bones. Each step Mary took would have been laden with sorrow, and as she arrives at the tomb, to add to her already miserable state, she receives a terrible shock. The gigantic stone that sealed Jesus in, and kept grave robbers out, has been moved. The tomb is open!

This is not a time for logical, clear-headed thinking. Mary leapt to an immediate, though incorrect, conclusion, so she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” We can feel her pain, her grief, her total panic. And she is not the only one who is now frightened.

Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together… Of course they were running. They are both terrified of what they will find – or will not find.

Interestingly, just here, in John’s Gospel, the Gospel writer takes a moment to put in a good word for John, the disciple Jesus’ loved. The other disciple [John} outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And then, a few sentences later we’re told that Peter enters the tomb. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed. It makes a slight break in the story as we briefly smile at the tribute being paid to John. He arrives first. He believes. But then the disciples leave, still not understanding the scripture, that Jesus must rise from the dead.

And we are left with a confused and terribly upset woman, Mary Magdalene, now abandoned by the men, the ones with any real authority in her society. This may seem insensitive on the part of the men, but they no doubt have more serious issues to discuss in this dark time after the execution of their Rabbi, Jesus - the One they believed was the Messiah, and now the disappearance of His body. Thus, Mary is left, outside the empty tomb, alone with her confusion and sorrow.

Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb…”

It is a heart wrenching scene. Despite all that Jesus has said and done to try to prepare His followers for His death and His resurrection, not one of them has understood. The place in Mary’s heart that Jesus filled while He lived, is now as empty as His tomb. Mary is aching, filled with death, and pain. She is trying to understand with her mind everything that is happening, and for her there is no logic to anything anymore.

How many empty tombs have we faced in our lives? Perhaps not always literally, but still emptiness so profound we cringe with the thought of it. There are so many things we can recall. There is that misspoken word or words that we cannot take back, words that hurt, cut, and damaged. There is the selfish gesture, the self-aggrandizing stance we’ve taken, the insensitivity we’ve shown.

There is the sorrow of the mother who has miscarried her baby, and of the families who have stood by open graves during the pandemic and watched as those they love who have died are buried. There is the opportunity for grace that we somehow failed to act on. We think of the beggar whose pleas we ignored. We think of the feelings of those who watched George Floyd die, but, terrified of the armed police, stayed frozen in place, paralyzed by their fear.

We know what Mary is feeling, because grief and the confusion and sorrow of death, the guilt we feel for actions not taken, are not strangers to us.

Mary looks at the place where Jesus’ body had been laid, and the angels speak to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” In the midst of our pain, our guilt, our grief, whatever tears at our heart, there is the caring voice that asks, “Why are you weeping?” And once again Mary speaks her grief. She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.”

It seems that the pain has no end. Mary must have been ready to collapse under the weight of it. But this day is the day of the unexpected, the unfathomable, of the unbelievable all becoming real.

When Mary had spoken to the angels, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.

At first we may wonder how it can be that Mary cannot see clearly just who it is who has spoken to her. But we have the same problem. Mother Teresa often spoke of finding Jesus, where He is hidden, in each and every person we meet. Yet, it is difficult to find Him even if and when we are looking for Him, something we do not always remember to do, and it can seem almost impossible to find Him when we are filled with pain and grief. Mary, like us, has this problem. She even speaks with the man she assumes is the gardener, without knowing who He is. And then -

Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

Welcome, happy morning! age to age shall say: Hell to-day is vanquished, heaven is won to-day! Lo! the Dead is living, God for evermore Him their true Creator, all his works adore!

Mary’s heart must have come close to exploding with joy. The Shepherd has called His lamb by her name, and the sheep always recognize the voice of their Shepherd. She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). And then, her reaction is the same as ours would be, she throws her arms around Jesus, who cautions her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father”.

It is Easter! We have so much to make us joyful. The dark days of pandemic have helped to burn away some of the pride and selfishness that stands between us and our Lord. Hard working scientists and medical personnel have devised a number of vaccines to help restore life and normality to our days. Soon, we will have the chance to turn to each other and finding Jesus there hug each other with true joy and abandon.

Jesus asks only that we not hold back the Good News. He tells Mary: Go to my brothers [and sisters] and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that He had said these things to her.

And so, we live our lives filled with joy and gratitude, and by our words and actions we proclaim, “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia”

Let us pray:

Lord God, heavenly Father, hear our prayer and let the radiance of your love scatter the gloom of our hearts. The light of heaven's love has restored us to life - free us from the desires that belong to darkness. Help us to be the ones who shed light and love in our troubled world. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. AMEN