Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friends in Christ,

One of the lines in the Gospel that always hits home when you ponder it for a minute is the plaintive cry of Mary Magdalene, "They have taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they have put him."

It had not been her first thought in arriving at the empty tomb, to immediately guess that Jesus was resurrected. Instead, she guessed that Romans or others had carried away the corpse of her Master. In answer to the question "Why are you weeping?" she replied, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." In this reply and in succeeding verses, she pours out concern for Jesus for though she thought him dead, yet she would not have his body desecrated even more than it had been in life.

She does not know that Jesus is alive. She does not know what has happened. The Resurrection has happened yet there she is, unaware, and filled with dread.

You see we can experience and know two feelings - two truths at once. We can experience grief even as things are changing around us. We can acknowledge that Christ is Risen and still not feel much like it is Easter. That is ok. That is just fine. We can wonder where Jesus is in the midst of our grief and hardly realize that he is risen. He has returned to bring salvation. He has come to set us free.

Jesus comes to the grave of Lazarus and still weeps. He knows what he will do. He knows what he can do. Yet he is still moved to tears. Even amidst knowing what Jesus can and will do we can still be moved by the sorrow of separation from one another and anxiety about what is to come.

It is not un-Christian to be moved by the pain of the world. It is profoundly and deeply Christian. Perhaps one small proof of the Resurrection is that we are moved by the grief of the world to long even more for the restoring, healing, transforming power of Christ. A people without hope or mercy or love cannot be moved - what is the point if nothing can be done? Yet a people of hope can be moved deeply by the world's grief and know that the One who is acquainted with that sorrow and knows our griefs is risen and he comes to set us free.

Yours in Resurrection Hope,

Fr Robert