8 April 2023 - a great earthquake (easter vigil)

Today's Readings (Easter Vigil)

(Audio)

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning

It was Sunday, the first day of the week because it was the first day of creation. It would now become the first day of a new creation. It was a day that would hereafter be known in the Christian community as the Lord's day.

The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone.

This is the Lord's doing;

it is marvelous in our eyes.

This is the day that the Lord has made;

let us rejoice and be glad in it.

The Lord made every day of the old creation, but in a new in special way the honor of the new creation belonged to Sunday. The Sabbath rest of God on the sixth day of creation prefigured the rest of Jesus in the tomb. The celebration of that rest would therefore give way. No longer a rest awaiting completion, a rest partly shattered by the fall, the rest of the Lord's day was to be a taste here and now of the eternal rest of union with God himself. 

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.

Who were the first to see this new and mighty work of God, the first witnesses to the resurrection? It was not the many who have turned aside or run away, although there were many reasons, all seemingly legitimate, to do so. It was not those preoccupied more with their own self-preservation, their own fear, their self-pity at their own apparently dashed hopes, who first saw Jesus. Neither was to the strong, or to theological masters who perfectly understood the hidden meaning of events to whom Jesus first appeared. It was to these holy women, who, like the others, did not understand, but who also, unlike them, held on tenaciously with a compassion and love that would not, could not let go. Their affection for Jesus spoke a deeper truth than all of appearances of failure and death. This could not be the end, could it? Yet, at the same time, how could it not be the end of everything, the end of their hope and all real hope along with it? But they persisted, they stayed near, as if sensing that there was a true answer yet to be given.

And behold, there was a great earthquake;

It is no exaggeration to say that the announcement of the resurrection was an earthquake, one which entirely upended the lives of peoples and nations, one that changed hearts and the whole world. This shaking was a source of new life for some.

After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (see Acts 4:31).

But it was a shaking which would reveal that which was true and lasting precisely by causing that which was temporary and compromised to crumble.

This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain (see Hebrews 12:27).

The resurrection is not the tame event we sometimes make it out to be, not a harmless happy ending to what for all practical purposes is now an inspirational fairytale. This earthquake continues to change everything. No wonder the initial response of the women was fear. No wonder they needed to hear the angel say, "Do not be afraid!" It was a whole new world, and old ways of thinking and acting were no longer enough. There was no way to predict what might happen next in the light of the resurrection, because all of the old paradigms rested on assumptions that had now been proven to invalid. But this meant that there was no limit to God's saving power. And they would not need to navigate this new world alone.

And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them.

They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.

The only one who can make sense of the earthquake that has been ongoing since that first Easter is Jesus himself. Let us journey with these holy women to Galilee. Let us go and invite those brothers who do not yet know the news, who see only the shaking, but do not yet know the cause. Death is defeated, the last have been made first, and sinners doomed to eternal death have been offered instead an eternal hope. The lives we now live in this world can only make sense insofar as we encounter the risen Lord and live in union with him.

Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin

and living for God in Christ Jesus.

Songs In His Presence - Psalm 118: This Is The Day The Lord Has Made