Friday, April 25, 2014

Easter Sunday 2008, Soul Ablaze

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Easter Sunday
Mark 16: 1-18

And when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Him. And very early on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb just as the sun was rising. And they said to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?”
And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back—and it was very large. And they went into the tomb. There they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clad in a white robe; and they were beside themselves with amazement. And he said to them, “Do not be startled; you seek Jesus of Nazareth the Crucified One. He is risen; He is not here; see, there is the place where they laid Him [his body]. But go, and say to his disciples and Peter “He will lead you to Galilee. There you will see Him as He promised you.”
            And they went out and fled from the tomb in great haste, for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and being awestruck, they were unable to say anything to anyone about what they had experienced.
When He had risen early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene from whom He had driven out seven demons. And she went and told those who had walked with Him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, their hearts could not grasp it.
After this He appeared in another form to two of them on the way as they were walking
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over the fields. And they went back and told the rest, but they could not open their hearts to their words either.
Afterwards He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were celebrating the meal. He reproached them for their lack of openness and for their hardness of heart, because they had not wanted to believe those who had seen Him, the Risen One.

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the new message from the realm of the angels to the whole of creation. Whoever unites his heart with it  [believes] and is immersed in me [baptized] will attain the salvation. But whoever closes himself against it does not let the power of selflessness into his heart [does not let the power of My Self into his heart] will meet his downfall. And spiritual powers [these signs] will stand by those who unite themselves with it and will attend their path [believe]: Through the power of my being [in my name] they will drive out demons; they will speak a new language; serpents they will make upright, and poisons they are given to drink will not harm them. They will lay their hands on the sick, and give healing forces to them.

Easter Sunday
March 23, 2008
Mark 16: 1-18

When we walk out of a dark space into a bright one, the light can be dazzling. For a while we cannot see. We are unable to orient ourselves. It takes a bit for things to clarify and to emerge from the light.

During Holy Week we moved within a cold darkness, in the blackness and loss of the season’s inner space. And suddenly, overnight, everything has changed to brightness and a perplexing joy. We are like the women moving in the dark toward sunrise; the women in a dark sepulchral cave and seeing dazzling forms, hearing incomprehensible words—He is not here; He is risen. He will lead you to Galilee. There you will see Him.

It takes a while to adjust. And an even longer time to understand, to grasp that He who was lost to us has turned up alive and more than well; and furthermore, different. The mind cannot grasp it. But something has changed.

The animal of the body is quicker to apprehend. Its heart beats in jubilation; every breath is comfort and joy. For heart and breath have already been reunited with the Beloved. The mind is slow; the senses slower yet. But heart, blood and breath have changed. For something in the light is different; Someone is living now in light and air. The soul’s doors and windows have been thrown open, and life and light and warmth come streaming in.

One of the saints has tried to describe it:

I saw a fullness and a singeing

brightness with which I then
felt myself so filled
that words now fail to serve….
I would not say I saw a bodily form
but he was as he is in [the] heaven[s]
which is to say, of such exquisite
beauty that I have no means
to speak of it, save to say
He is the Beauty, the All Good
š
Unfailingly I knew that it was Christ
who warmed me, for nothing sets the soul ablaze
As when Christ has entered it and charms it
with His love.
š
The embrace of God puts fire to the soul….
The effect of this fire in the soul is to render it
certain and secure that Christ is there within it.[1]

This fire of love is ignited in the soul by Christ in us, He who lives in our life, whose light is in our daylight. The fire of His love is a fire of offering, a mysterious fire that does not consume, but creates—more light, more life, more love.

www.thechristiancommunity.org.





[1] Blessed Angela of Foligno (1248 – 1309), in Love’s Immensity, Scott Cairns, p. 86 (“His Entry and Delight”), p. 87 (“A Vision”), and p. 88 (“His Blazing Embrace”).