Abbot Brendan OSB
Easter is early this year. I won’t bore you with the complicated calculations that produce the date of Easter, but as you probably know it’s all to do with the Paschal moon which has been shining so brightly these nights.
There is a sense, however, in which Easter is early every year. It’s forever taking us by surprise. The women, moved by affection, went to the tomb early in the day, while it was still dark, to anoint the body. They did not give in to the gloom of sorrow and regret or flee from reality. In the darkness of their hearts, they lit a flame of mercy. Going to the grave of a loved one is something we often do. People are drawn to graveyards because it makes us feel closer to the one who has died. Graveyards are usually peaceful places, the last place in the world you would expect to find high drama. The tomb is the place where no one who enters ever leaves.
Imagine then how surprised the women were when they experienced a violent earthquake and saw an angel sitting on the great stone with the tomb lying open and empty. This was not someone breaking in; this was someone breaking out. The resurrection had already happened. Easter was early!
The first message of Easter is this: He is not here. He is risen! Everyone was afraid. No surprise there. The soldiers, we’re told, were shaken, like dead men, terrified of the angel. But the angel ignores the soldiers and speaks directly to the women, “There is no need for you to be afraid.” Tonight we acquire a fundamental right that can never be taken away from us: the right to hope.
The resurrection accounts are full of people getting it wrong. The simple fact is that our minds and our imaginations are far too small to contain the vastness of this mystery. This is why we still descend into jealousy, war and vengeance two thousand years later, when in reality what we need in the world today is bread, not more guns.
Did you ever wonder what it was like for those first few hours after the empty tomb was discovered by Mary of Magdala and the other Mary? Which of us would really rejoice at the prospect of a miracle that would make us rethink most of what we had taken for granted? Then into that chaos steps a figure before whose face ‘the questions fade away’. The future is now quite unimaginable; but there is nothing that can alter the sheer effect of his presence. That same presence is here among us right now. Tonight, humanity has for the second time in history, discovered fire. For this reason, we began our liturgy with fire, celebrating the light in darkness. For it was God who said, ‘Let there be light! We then made memorial of the history of salvation: the creation of the world, the faith of Abraham, the exodus from Egypt. Everything in history has a meaning and that meaning is fulfilled in the Resurrection.
Everything in history converges on that moment when the women arrive at the tomb; but the tomb was empty; they did not find the Lord there. They were on their way home when they met the Risen Lord. This is also how we meet him, in times of trouble, in times of joy, along the road of life. And so it is that this is the loveliest of all nights. The angel’s message was to go to Galilee. Galilee was the farthest region from Jerusalem; the farthest place from the sacredness of the Temple, an area where people of different religions lived. The message of hope should not be confined to our sacred places.
Many have seen in this white robed angel, a symbol for all the baptised – for you and me. Standing before the empty tomb the angel announces, “He has risen from the dead”, because this is what a Christian does – announces the resurrection!
Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη! (Khristós Anésti! Alithós Anésti!) Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!