Easter Vigil 2018

Saturday, March 31, 2018  Easter Vigil

The Blue Moon of March 31, 2018

When the sky cleared last evening and the near-full moon rose, our Jewish brothers and sisters celebrated the feast of Passover.  We Christians, of course, had celebrated Jesus’ last Passover on Thursday evening.    There Jesus gives himself as food for our journey into liberation and glory.   Like the Jews freed from Egypt, in our own desert we also may complain about the struggles through which we must live but at the same time Jesus is with us in the Eucharist and sends us the Spirit of encouragement and peace.

A story in Mark’s gospel tells of the women discovering the empty tomb and hearing the message of the angel:  “Jesus of Nazareth has been raised, he is not here.”   Details about what happens next among the women differ.   Mark says that they were afraid to tell anyone.   Luke writes, on the other hand, that they told the men who were disciples but the men refused to believe the women.  

Similar witness from the women occurs in each of the four gospels. Yes, later the men offer testimony but Jesus reveals his resurrection first to the women.  In their patriarchal society none of the gospel writers or male disciples would have thought it helpful to begin with women’s testimony.  Thus such unusual testimony argues for its truth.   And, too, this revelation first to women underlines their role as disciples of Jesus.

I seek some parallels of the resurrection in our own clumsy lives. Even when this possibility is so disrupted by our sins and the evil in this world, rebirth never vanishes.   To be sure, so often the Spirit of God and the hands of human love and care bring about a rebirth as in the change of heart of those ailing with addictions or lives of anger and hatred.   

But still, with each person’s inevitable death, the permanence of risen life hides itself from us.    In our times of sadness and anger over death or over the suffering of children we find ourselves in the same position as the men and women who came to know Jesus, his life and his teaching.   The Spirit opened their eyes to his resurrection so powerfully that his love transformed their lives.   All of our weaknesses and sins, all the evil in the world have not and cannot destroy this Spirit.