Gn 1:1–2:2; Gn 22:1–18; Ex 14:15–15:1
Is 54:5–14; Is 55:1–11; Bar 3:9-15, 32:4:4
Ez 36:16–17a, 18–28; Rom 6:3–11; Mt 28:1–10
“As the first day of the week was dawning…” Matthew begins his Gospel this day with dawn. It begins with the gentle quiet arrival of the first light of the day. Our vigil liturgy began with light. With light in the midst of darkness, with the proclamation that Christ the light was rising. We began our vigil of listening to the Word of God with creation. We heard that the first creative word of God was light. And there was light. And then we heard that the great saving work of God called Exodus took place just as dawn was arriving. Should we be surprised then that God’s creative and redemptive work of resurrection will be experienced in the fresh light of dawn.
The women come in the light of dawn but they are still wearing the clothes of darkness, the garb of death. They come to sit and mourn as they had already seen the place of burial. But this dawn will quickly change their mourning into a real though hesitating joy. They will find themselves in a new world. First, they will experience an earthquake. It was already announced by Matthew on his Good Friday—immediately after Jesus dies tombs are opened. Today it is definitive. The old order is broken; the earthquake has broken open the place of death. The crucified man cannot be held by death. A new existence is opening up for him and for these women as well. The earthquake has destroyed the assumption of the past. The angel has plopped himself down on the door of death as if to say, you just try closing it again. You can’t fix what an earthquake has destroyed. Death is emptied.
Are there hints here this Easter Day that our pandemic is a kind of earthquake? When it is over perhaps we cannot put back the old order again. Perhaps we have to change how we see our world. The virus for all its destruction and disturbance of everyday life has pulled out of us a solidarity in our common humanity. Even as we go about the caring for one another, making efforts to protect ourselves, being with those who are dying and mourning their loss, even in all that expression of love, is there not something new being born? We are touching our fragility and powerlessness. And it is precisely in that a new life can find a home. Today we proclaim that a crucified and dead Jesus lives. Today we celebrate God’s mercy in loving one man’s tortured and pierced body left for dead back into a new and different life. Jesus’ utter powerlessness on the cross is today shown to be the place where the dawn of a new day opens our vision to the possibility of a new world.
The women who came to the tomb thought the future was clear. A man, even a man of God, God’s son, had died and was buried. That was the end. Death claimed him. But the angel, God’s messenger, really said: No, it is not the end, it is the beginning. Something new is happening. Go and announce it to those whom he taught and mentored. Go tell his disciples that he is going before you to Galilee. You will see him there. He is still with you; he is still leading, going before you. He is Emmanuel. He is leading you into a new way beyond the dust of the earthquake, beyond the shattered bodies, beyond your closed worlds and shut doors.
When the earthquake starts and we feel as though everything under us is going to give way, we become afraid, we panic. Where shall we go? And yet, what is the word spoken to us today in the midst of the shaking of the world by a virus: “Do not be afraid.” We heard it first from the angel who seems to enjoy his perch on the overturned stone: Do not be afraid. I know you are trying to understand what is happening. But things are changing; you can change too. Understanding may come slowly, like the dawn. You need to go forward where he is leading you. And running on the way to catch up with Jesus, they meet him. And his words to them: “Do not be afraid.” Yes, head on to Galilee and I will meet you there. We will all be together there. “Do not be afraid”: This is the refrain God is sending our way this Easter Sunday.
The earthquake is a symbol that something of the older order has broken up. But something new has emerged. What is broken is the claim that death has on humanity. What is released is new way of life that was originally shown us in Galilee, that place where even in Jesus day nations mixed and Jesus taught on the mountainside what constituted the real way of being human with God. Galilee—the place where God comes not to break what is bruised or broken, or flickering, but to lift us up by carrying our burden. This he did on the cross.
The earthquake is not the only sign that resurrection has changed something. Jesus’ rising has changed relationships beginning with Jesus relationship to his own. The angel tells the women to become messengers themselves and announce to Jesus’ disciples that Jesus has be raised from the dead and still leading—in Galilee. The angel calls the followers of Jesus his disciples, his students, his learners…and so they are.
But something has changed when Jesus gives similar instructions to the women himself. There he does not speak of ‘his disciples.’ No, he speaks of ‘my brothers.’ The resurrection has brought about a change in Jesus’ relationship with his followers. Now they are his brothers and sisters. And he, he is their brother. Yes, in his dying he has completed his own humanity. He has borne the burden of suffering and death that is so much a part of the human story and experience. He has become like us in all things. He has completed is name of Emmanuel, God with us, in suffering and death. For the first time Jesus can look at those who have given him their ear and their heart and he can call them his brothers and sisters. Now that he has passed through the darkness of death and experienced God’s love, he can look on us as one with him. And we, we can hasten to meet him in Galilee because today he has become our brother, someone we want to be with. The women are carrying a precious message to Jesus followers. He has entrusted to them not only the news that death is conquered but that God has given them his Son as their brother.
We know the meeting in Galilee will result in mission. Jesus will send his new brothers and sisters to take this message into the world and announce a new humanity. The earthquake has set in motion a new earth, the old order has passed. And dawn has revealed the beginning a new humanity gathered around Jesus our brother.
Christ is risen, alleluia!
He is truly risen, alleluia!
~ Fr. Joel Macul, OSB