Lament on Easter Morning

His appearance was like lightning.

-Matthew 28:4

In Matthew’s account of the empty tomb, Mary Magdalen and ‘the other Mary’ (whichever Mary that is) waited until the Sabbath was over and the sun was rising on the first day of the week to visit Jesus’ burial place. Sabbath rules would have restricted their freedom to move about until sunrise, so clearly they got going at the first possible moment to - do what? Mourn at the grave? Plant flowers? Pray? We don’t know, but we know that they were grieving, and perhaps they just wanted to go to the tomb in order to be near their memories and their love for Jesus. Any of us who’ve lost a love one know what that can be like. And most of us can now relate to how they must have felt the day before, unable to get out and be where they wanted to be, while accepting that the faithful thing to do was to stay home.

Whatever the reason, they experienced something very unexpected. Matthew says that, “suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.” This angel’s appearance, Matthew says, was “like lightning, his clothing white as snow.” An earthquake, and a supernatural appearance of an angel that appeared like lightning! The guards that Pilate had hired to guard the tomb “shook and became like dead men.” This was certainly no mild cemetery visit.  

The angel tells them not to be afraid (really?) and then shares the news that Jesus had been raised, that he’s no longer in the tomb, that they’ll be seeing him again soon. Matthew tells us that the women “left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy” to go back and tell the disciples what had happened. It’s hard to imagine their hugely conflicting feelings from that awesome experience.

Or maybe it’s not so hard to imagine. We are in a time of huge feelings, also. Unexpected realizations and fears and joys all can appear like lightning out of the blue - or in dreams - online or in the news. We are hopeful that Easter is coming, but feeling afraid of the earthquakes. We want to embrace our joys but our fears are tightly intertwined with them. This particular Holy Week and Easter are full of huge, mixed feelings for all of us .

So as we prepare for the Triduum - the traditional services of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Great Vigil of Easter,, it strikes me that we are like those women - before the sun came up on the first day. We are faithfully staying home in our grief, waiting for the break of day. I pray that despite our continuing social isolation this week and weekend, we will find our own ways to figuratively go to the tomb despite all the earthquakes and lightning all around, trusting that we will somehow find that Christ has indeed risen, and that despite all our current anxieties, there is still be good news to share.