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| He Qi |
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
over the fields. And they went back and told the rest, but they
could not open their hearts to their words either.
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| He Qi |
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
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.
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”).
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