Easter Sunday 2021, Dreaming the Meaning

 

Easter Sunday

Mark 16:1-18

And when the Sabbath was over,

Julia Stankova

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.

Julia Stankova

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. Afterward, He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were celebrating the meal. He reproached them for their lack of openness and 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 their heart with it and is immersed in me will attain salvation. But whoever closes themselves against it will meet their downfall. And spiritual powers will stand by those who unite themselves with it and will attend their path: Through the power of my being they will drive out demons; they will speak a new language; serpents they will make upright, and poisons they drink will not harm them. They will lay their hands on the sick and give healing forces to them."

Easter Sunday

April 11, 2004

April 4, 2021

Mark 16: 1-18

When we are asleep, we dream. Images, pictures pregnant with feeling tones unfold before our inner eye. These images are sometimes nightmarish, sometimes marvelous.

The poet Antonio Machado* describes this. He says:

Last night I had a dream–

Tracy Silva Barbosa

…I dreamt of a hive at work

deep down in my heart.

Within were the golden bees

straining out the bitter past

to make sweet-tasting honey,

and white honeycomb.

Sometimes dream images picture a higher reality, for our hearts are indeed a center of teeming activity. It is in our hearts that our old failures and mistakes are digested. In our hearts, they are transformed into the "white honeycombs," the breeding places for new life. In our hearts, errors and failures are transformed into sweet nourishment for the Self we are to become.

He goes on:

 Last night I had a dream–

J. Hahn

…I dreamt of a fountain flowing

deep down in my heart.

welling up with new life

 

Last night I had a dream–

I dreamt it was God I'd found

deep down in my heart.

This morning we are awake. And the dream has come true. The Sun-God has arisen in our hearts. We can feel His transforming power, making our errors fruitful, His new life welling up as strength and joy. We have awakened and it dawns on us—Christ is risen to us as the meaning of the earth.

 

*Antonio Machado, "Last Night I Had a Dream," translated by Alan Trueblood.