Listening to Angels
In all four Gospel narratives the women encounter angels when, in the early morning, they arrive at the empty tomb. The women do not know who they are, only men whose faces dazzled and they wore brilliant white robes. In each encounter the angels pacify them by saying ‘Do not be afraid’ and then explain to them that Jesus is not here - He is Risen.
Despite being foretold of the resurrection by Jesus, God The Father knew they would not be able to understand and that they would be terrified by not finding the Body of Jesus. In His love, care and gentleness He sends His angels as comforters and messengers. I interpret this as God’s patience with us, His recognition of our slowness to understand, and the fraility of our emotions.
This is so typical of us today, God telegraphs His messages to us, about the trajectory of our lives, through Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Yet, as the Risen Christ tells the disciples on the ‘Road to Emmaus’ Luke 24: 25 ‘How foolish you are, and how slow to (understand) and believe all that the prophets have spoken’. We are exceedingly slow to interpret God’s messages and He therefore sends angels - persons whose faces figuratively dazzle and they wear white robes.
Yet even these we often fail to recognize. I think of the Nobel Laureate V S Naipaul who explained in his book, The Enigma of Arrival, that it is so necessary to look beneath the surface of the occurences in our lives. In our haste, we do not pay attention, we skim the surface. As Naipaul demonstrated in the book, the drama of our lives unfold hidden beneath. There are angels, yet in our rush we fail to see them and recognize them.
Angels are vitally important, if we are to abandon the empty tombs. We linger and stay in the empty tombs of our lives. Just yesterday a friend told me of a mutual acquaintance, who has failed to leave the empty tomb of a departed loved one. As she went on to share - so many parishioners get stuck in the tragedies of life. I know because I have experienced such a loss and temptation. There is an emotional reluctance to leave the empty tomb and when we do, we come back.
As we reflected on in a previous post, it is only through faith that we can move on. We have to have faith in the Resurrection and its implications for our departed loved ones and the empty tombs of past stages of our lives. He is Risen and with Him all our departed loved ones. We have to move on. The angels tell us - He is not here - Go! God has a mission for us who are left behind. We have to Listen to Angels.
Abba, through Our Lord Jesus Christ, send us angels, help us recognize them and listen to them when they say - He is Risen - He is Not Here - Go!