Easter Sunday Morning 2020
 
Dear brothers and sisters,
 
In today’s Gospel Mary of Magdalen comes to the Tomb.  We hear how she is still in the dark as she approaches the scene; still in the dark as to the real meaning of all that has happened since the Lord was taken away from her on Calvary, and her own Way of the Cross had begun.
 
The laws of the Passover meant that the Lord’s funeral and burial had to be a speedy affair and, at least according to this Gospel’s account, Mary was not there.  Whereas it was normal for the women to follow the body of their loved one to the grave, anointing it with spices and enfolding it in linen cloth, the extraordinary circumstances of the Passover and Jesus’ death, meant she had to be home and was not able to be present.  It was left to men of the cloth, Joseph and Nicodemus, to carry out the requisite burial rites, Nicodemus bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, then both he and Joseph taking Jesus’ body and wrapping it with spices in strips of linen. 
 
So, this is the first opportunity Mary has to go along to the graveside all by herself and feel close to Her Beloved who was so quickly and cruelly stolen away from her. 
 
Buy when she arrived she notices that the stone has been moved away.  Thinking in human terms, quite naturally, she supposes that they – whoever ‘they’ are- have taken the Lord out of the Tomb and now she does not know where they have put Him.   So, she comes running to Simon Peter and the other disciple Jesus loved.  She comes to Peter because he is the leader and, surely, he will know what to do.  She comes to John because He is the beloved disciple and at least he will understand her anguish and confusion, and know how to show some compassion on her broken heart. 
 
So, with them taking the Lord out of the Tomb, for Mary things that already seemed bad have just become so much worse.  All that was so precious to her faith was taken away all too quickly, and now the implications are dawning on her that she has no idea how, if at all, she will ever have sight of these things again. 
 
Looking at things from a human perspective it was natural for Mary to feel sad, and then to jump to all sorts of conclusions in her thinking, and finally to fail to recognise Jesus, right in the middle of her crisis of faith, even when He was staring her in the face.  According to human calculation her world had been turned all topsy-turvy, she was left entirely in the dark and, understandably, she could see no reason for hope or peace.
 
But we know God’s thoughts not our thoughts.  Indeed, as far as the Heavens are above the earth, so far are His ways above ours.   Saint Paul reminds us how, in the midst of any crisis, personal or other, if we want to makes any sense of all that going on, we at some point have to raise our thoughts to heavenly things, and not focus on things that are on earth. 
 
If only Mary were to see all that was happening to her and her world from this higher perspective, in the light of faith or, as Saint Paul put it, from her true life in Christ, then she would soon be able to see how, even in this moment of apparent crisis, there is really nothing to cry about. It was all safely in the hands and the plans of Her Master and Lord, Who she knew from personal experience had never allowed any evil to occur out of which He could not draw a greater good.   Soon, we know, Mary will learn this higher lesson, and discover to her great joy how nothing and no-one could ever take her Lord away from her once He had ascended to the Father and ensured her whole life could be hidden with Him  in God, and that she could cling to Him, Her Saviour, in faith forever.
 
Mary was privileged to be chosen to witness these things and so to understand the significance of them.  Peter too was blessed to be chosen to eat and drink with Jesus after His Resurrection and so to be personally assured of the Lord’s victory over every crisis and even Death itself.  Thomas, too, was blessed to believe because he had seen. 
 
But for Jesus, these are not the truly blessed ones in His eyes.  For Him the truly blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe; those who hope and trust in His power to save even when everything seems impossible and lost and even God seems to delay. 
 
Throughout our Holy Week and Triduum Mysteries it has been a special grace for us priests to celebrate the Easter rites in our churches and cathedrals, to be chosen to eat and drink with Jesus after His Resurrection from the Dead and to be assured of how no created thing, not even a pandemic, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
 
But, be in no doubt, you who have not been able to be with us to witness these things personally, and have yet believed and worshipped as best you could; you are the truly blessed ones in the eyes of the Risen Lord .
 
No doubt these are dark days, where so much that is just normal and dear to us has been taken away.  Yet, please God these Easter Mysteries have brought us back to our true life in Christ, and can help us to understand in faith how those old certainties that have been now so moved across our world, just like the stone that was moved away, are no cause for anguish and grief, but maybe are rather just the prelude to our world’s new encounter with the Lord, Risen as judge of everyone and all times, so that our faults can be forgiven and a wonderful new life begin again in Him.  Resurrexit, sicut dixit. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!