Hopeful Signs
The Church has given us two Gospel narratives to reflect on this week, Mark 16: 1-8 for the Easter Vigil and John 20: 1-9 for Easter Sunday. I encourage you to read both and try not to go beyond versus 8 and 9 respectively, or you will get ahead of the unfolding drama. In both Gospel narratives there are no actual sightings of the risen Christ, only hopeful signs.
I find this very reflective of our lives today, since we don’t get sightings of the risen Christ. We get signs that he has risen. So often like Mary Madalene and the other women we go very early, when the sun is just appearing, to the tombs of our lives bringing spices to anoint the dead.
Sandee and I try to leave home each morning, just before the sun appears, yet light enough to not be afraid of the dark, to take our morning walk. As we walk, we sometimes reflect on the negative stories of our lives, the community, the country or world. We walk with figurative spices to anoint the ‘deaths’ we know of. It could be the latest national bad news, a family issue, or bad news of some friend or acquaintance.
It is in this state that the women of the Gospels say to each other, as they walk along, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’. For us too, things seem impossible to change. You can imagine their astonishment when they encounter, the large seemingly unmovable stone, rolled away from the tomb entrance. It is like when on a morning, we encounter a tree has burst into bloom, a tree normally green is now a brilliant orange yellow. As we gaze on its beauty, we recognize it as a hopeful sign of the risen Christ.
For us, it reflects the presence of God's grace and redemption in the world. Psalm 19: says, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.’ The beauty of the tree is a hopeful sign of Christ's resurrection, it symbolizes new life, hope in the midst of darkness, a glimpse of restoration promised by God. Situations in our lives are no longer death but there are signs and promise of new life bursting forth.
Risen Christ, please interrupt the mourning and grief of our lives, as we walk along, with hopeful signs of the resurrection. Help us to recognize these signs as promise of new life in dead situations.
Dear friends, I am please to announce the launch of my website. It is my hope that it will grow into something of beauty and value, a hopeful sign of the resurrection.