Easter Sunday
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| Milesva Monastery |
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.
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.
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| Rembrandt |
Mark
16: 1-18
Christ Jesus was entombed in a cave with
large stone rolled over the entrance. When He rose, His rising was accompanied
by an earthquake. The foundations of the
world were shaken by this mighty event, for Death itself had been infused with
a new form of Life. An angel rolls back the stone, revealing the place where
the transformation of the world had taken place. The earth shone with a new
light.
The cave is also a
picture for the human heart. Each year Christ dies into us, is buried in each
and every one of us. And every year at Easter He rises in and through us. Who
rolls away for us the stone from the tomb of the heart, the stone of
hardness of heart, of not wanting to believe and trust that He lives? He who
was entombed is now alive, in us, and everywhere. He lives in the very light
that shines, lives in the very air we breathe. He walks in the spirit before
us. We seek to find Him, for He is the very meaning and essence of our true
being. We know that without Him, we are not complete. We know, in the words of
the poet:
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| Simeon Solomon |
I am this one walking beside me whom
I do not see,
Whom at times I manage
to visit,
And whom at other
times I forget;
The one who remains
silent when I talk
The one who forgives,
sweet, when I hate,
The one who takes a
walk where I am not.
The one who will
remain standing when I die.[1]
The
One who walks beside me, before me – He whom I do not see – because of Him, I know that the grave is
empty. Because of Him, the heart is full. In Him, I too will rise, through Him,
into new life.
