Hebrew and Gospel Texts for the Great Vigil Saturday 20 April 2019

 Ezekiel 36:24-28         Say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 

Luke 24:1-12        On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Reflection        In his book “Befriending Our Desires,” the Jesuit priest Philip Sheldrake, S.J. writes, “Ecstasy is a moment in which some otherwise distant reality is glimpsed as here and now and at one with oneself.” (p 85) Standing at Jesus’ tomb Mary Magdalen, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women experience an ecstatic moment. They are at one with Divine Presence and have a glimpse of the distant reality -  right here and right now. Today we stand in Jesus’ empty tomb with the faithful women and experience a glimpse of the distant reality -  right here and right now, we are at One with the Divine.

I have never seen an angel nor have I heard a booming voice from heaven. But once in my prayers I had an experience of Jesus that was more real than anything I have ever seen with my eyes or touched with my hands. In my heart of hearts I heard Jesus say, “Follow me.” And I stepped behind him. He said, “Come closer.” And I did. And he said, “Closer.” And I answered, “If I come any closer I will step on your heels.” And he said “Closer.” And I stepped into Him and vanished, except I wasn’t gone. What was gone was my sense of separation. I couldn’t see him anymore. I couldn’t sense where I ended and He began. I just knew that He was closer to me than my own breath and that I was so close to Him that there was nothing between us.

I tell you this story because many of you also have stories - stories of how you have been touched by God - and unless we tell our stories we are not living out our lives as the apostles sent to share the Good News.  You see like Mary Magdalene and the other women our stories are meant to be told and retold as reminders that God is not dead. God is alive and with us  - risen right now in our hearts of flesh. 

This is resurrection; our current and ongoing awakening into new and transformed life. You see Jesus did not come to bulldoze the Roman Empire and bury the religious officials in order to rescue regular folks like us into some future utopia. Jesus came as a common man whose on the ground ministry to the sick and rejected gathered a movement of ordinary folks, people whose hearts were broken open and whose spirits were renewed by Jesus’ message of dignity and hope for all people. But the political and religious operatives of his day were threatened by Jesus’ revolutionary message and the crowds he was gathering because it challenged the status quo (read - the officials positions of power and privilege).  So, the authorities counted Jesus a criminal and crucified him between two other criminals. 

Jesus does not protest. He allies himself with the least, the last and the lonely, the broken, the betrayed and the alien, all those ordinary people like me and you whose vision of dignity and hope for all people pose a threat to the status quo. Even though Jesus’ revolutionary vision leads to his brutal execution, his Spirit cannot be extinguished because it rises again and again and again in the fleshy hearts of humankind.  

On Easter we join Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women pondering Ezekiel’s words in the caverns of our hearts, “… A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh…” This is resurrection life. It is not put off for some distant time. Resurrection is now. We are the people of God because the Spirit and fleshy heart of Jesus is resurrected within us again, and again and again, always,  and right now.        

                Alleluia Christ is risen…. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!  

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Gospel text for Resurrection Sunday 27 March 2016

Luke 24.1-12         On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Reflection        In that moment when the women looked into Jesus’ tomb, when they looked into the place of death, they encountered Divine Presence and Wisdom awakened within them. You see these women, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women “had walked in the way of God.”  They were touched and healed and led and taught by Jesus. So we should not be surprised that Wisdom awoke in the emptiness of their broken hearts. We should not be surprised that when they looked into the place of death they saw it was not empty. There they encountered the ineffable Divine Presence and knew that Jesus’ words were true. Jesus was not to be found among the dead. Jesus’ place is with the living. Jesus’ place is in the hearts and minds and lives of his friends.

You see Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women were expecting to participate in the burial rituals of preparation for resurrection. That’s what the preparing of Jesus’ body was all about. According to Jewish custom it was essential to properly prepare a person’s body so that it could begin its long journey toward a far distant resurrection. So yes, the women expected resurrection,  but it was not supposed to happen..... NOW! NOW is the moment of resurrection. NOW is the moment of new life.  Resurrection is not put off for some distant time.

In his book “Befriending Our Desires,” the Jesuit priest Philip Sheldrake, S.J. writes, “Ecstasy is a moment in which some otherwise distant reality is glimpsed as here and now and at one with oneself.” (p 85) Standing at Jesus’ tomb the women experienced an ecstatic moment as Wisdom lit up their darkness.

Wisdom is a kind of knowing that exceeds the rational faculties of the human mind. Wisdom is knowing rooted in encounters with the Divine. Some might even suggest that the Bible is actually a series of descriptions of mystical encounters or altered state experiences associated with the ongoing revelation of Wisdom.  

Throughout the 20th century in the US, though we were curious about altered states (both natural and induced), we were skeptical. In the great age of rationalism, we labeled such things as irrational and dismissed them. This attitude set us apart from 74% of the 488 societies the anthropologist Erika Bourguignon studied in 1960s. Her conclusion was, “Societies that do not use these (altered states of consciousness) clearly are historical exceptions which need to be explained, rather than the vast majority of societies that do use these states.” In other words, having and ascribing value to altered state experiences is the norm throughout the world.

The good news is that now, in the 21st century, there is a cultural shift as we acknowledge the limits of rationalism. Astrophysicists admit that their ever growing knowledge of the cosmos accounts for 4% of what is, meaning 96% is literally in the dark - dark matter. Increasingly we are inclined to claim and affirm the value of knowledge or wisdom that exceeds the bounds of rational analysis. Scientists as well as theologians are affirming the Mysterious dimensions of human experience. There is something more than we can measure with our minds.

This is the wisdom Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women at Jesus’ tomb experienced two thousand years ago. This is the wisdom we remember that we are the people of God because we walk the women in the way of God, and the wisdom of the light of Christ is born anew within us.  Alleluia Christ is risen! 

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/neil-degrasse-tysons-new-show-cosmos-and-why-faith-and-reason-are-irreconcilable accessed 21 march 2016.

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