Easter Vigil 2014
There’s a whole lot of shaking going on! A whole lot of quaking
going on! Goodness, Gracious! In Matthew’s Gospel, the
exquisite Good News of the Resurrection is announced with earth
quaking and guards at the tomb shaking in their boots. Matthew is
into shaking and quaking. A similar event occurs at the moment of
Jesus’ death. The earth quaked, rocks split, tombs were opened.
These events of seismic significance—the cross and resurrection—
need special effects. There’s even an angel whose appearance was
like lightning and whose clothes was white as snow, sitting on the
stone that was rolled away. Very Disney! But isn’t the quaking
and shaking on the outside really meant to suggest that something
earth shaking was happening within those disciples whose
trembling and tears at the foot of the cross with the death of their
friend Jesus were being transformed into tears of joy and hearts
trembling in disbelief?
And are you shaking and quaking tonight? Are your hearts
trembling and your eyes shedding tears of joy?
Or for you is it just “Oh Well”, another Easter? And a cold one at
that!
As you know, the well has been with us throughout the Lenten
Season. As I said weeks ago, the well is a privileged place of
encounter in the scriptures. You never know whom you will meet
at the well. Like the Samaritan Woman, we have been invited to
encounter Jesus in his humanity, Jesus who asks us for a drink,
Jesus who knows us as we are and loves us as we are. But up until
tonight this well has been dry. No water. Until Holy Thursday
when there was just a trickle of water, as JA alluded. A trickle to
tickle our fancy, to whet our appetite for more to come. Enough
water from the well to wash the feet of his present-day disciples.
But on Friday there was no water flowing, even the font usually
filled with water flowing was empty, dry. I watched with wonder
when people, especially children peered into the emptiness of the
font/tomb wondering, “ where has all the water gone?” And so
yesterday, there was no water flowing, only the absence of water.
Only a cry from the cross: I thirst. But wait, there was water
flowing yesterday from the deep well of people’s pain. This was
salt water, not fresh. I saw water flowing, flowing down your face
like rivers. As I knelt before the cross last night, it seemed as if the
cross itself was weeping, grieving the hurt, the pain, the loss, the
heartbreak of each and every human being. It was that heartbroken self that Mario invited us to bring to the foot of the cross
last night.
But that was yesterday and now it’s tonight. Now the water is
flowing freely again like the waters of creation. Something has
happened that removes the dam, damn, damnation so that
everything, life, love, tears of joy can flow again. Something has
happened. But God only knows what. Let’s be honest, we don’t
know what actually happened. What did the Resurrection event
look like, taste like, smell like, feel like, sound like? I don’t know
about then but I know about now. It looks, sounds, smells, feels,
tastes like what we are doing tonight at our Easter Vigil.
Even if so many in our world are saying, “Oh well”, there are some
in this place whom I know are shaking and quaking, and trembling
and weeping for joy. They are those who are coming to the waters
of baptism. Coming to receive the gifts of the Spirit, coming to the
table of the Lord for the first time to be nourished in ways that they
never dreamed of. Like the disciples who gathered on Easter Night
in the upper Room, they were gathered this morning in the upper
room of the STM to share the story of Emmaus and to recount
some of the wonders of their spiritual Well-being. Oh Well, Oh
Well, Oh well. He is risen as he said! Alleluia!