John 20:1-18 (Easter)

Year A - Easter or Assured

April 20, 2014

John 20:1-18

Oh, how dark is a Sunday morning after a Saturday of having Friday sink in.

Oh, how dark is a open tomb. It beckons, “Next”.

Oh, how dark when physical absence becomes psychic absence.

Run, yes, run! Help, yes, “Help!”

All that’s left is some form of belief beyond understanding.

Oh, and returning to the usual we left for with no room for understanding. There are only earlier tapes to turn to.

It is so hard to wait for clarity. We make up beliefs to cover our lack of understanding and go as merrily as we can.

Without belief Mary weeps and waits; waits and weeps. A small sparkle in tear-dimmed eyes begins to see reality anew. This is not empty nothing to be covered over by frail belief.

Stating her reality: “Taken away”, “I do not know”, Mary presses for understanding. “Where?”

As quickly as Newton’s apple falling on him, Mary hears her name, her belovedness.

“Do not hold on to belief alone for it stops ascension, growing, more.

And Mary went on to affirm what she now knows of a process of life and more life, not to simply believe and retreat.

And it was dark and it was day, a new day.