Introduction
Today we celebrate the service of Joseph and Nicodemus, the most holy Virgin Mary (see Matthew 27:56 & Mark 15:40); Mary Magdalene (celebrated July 22); Mary, the wife of Clopas; Joanna, wife of Chouza; Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee; Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus; and Susanna. [As for the names of the rest of them, the evangelists have kept silence (Matthew 217:55-56; 28:1-10. Mark 15:40-41)].
This beautiful offering was prefigured when various women anointed Christ with myrrh; this is powerfully commemorate on Holy Wednesday, (Matthew 26:6-13); when it is accompanied by the beautifully haunting melody of the Hymn of Kassian. At least two of the myrrbearing women who came to Christ’s tomb had anointed him before his death: Mary Magdelene and Mary of Bethany (the sister of Lazarus).
Today We Imitate Them in a Special Way
It is a powerful reminder to us today – as Fr. Steve Hutnick notes in his homily from the UOC-USA website (portions of which I put in the bulletin), we are called to put ourselves into the place of these men and women: we are to become myrrhbearers. How? The more general point Fr. Steve makes is that we do it by allowing our love of Christ – not our worries about seemingly immovable obstacles – to guide us. This is beautiful and true. One of the very practical ways we imitate the love of thed ones myrrhbearers is by going and caring for the graves of our departed loved ones. Today’s blessing of the graves in Blackstone is part of this. Understanding the love of the myrrhbearers adds yet another dimension to this beautiful tradition.
Today’s Main Point: Don’t Treat Christ as if He were a Corpse
But there is another point that I would make about today’s feast, and it has to do with countering a very real temptation; that is the temptation to treat the Lord as if he were still dead [retell the story and what the women expected to do/find; contrast that with what they found].
We sing over and over again that “Christ is Risen” – how is it that we might be tempted to treat him as if he were dead?
We interact act with the dead mainly through memories. For instance, we can think back about the things that our mentors taught us and apply them to things we are going through now. Through love and prayer, we remain connected with our departed loved ones, but they are not available to give us up to the minute guidance. As Christians, how do we learn from Christ? Do we rely entirely on what he said and did before his crucifixion? If we do, then we are treating him as if he were dead. And we do this all the time. We treat him as if he were a finite historical personage, with a finite and defined corpus of teachings, the most important parts of which are contained within the New Testament of the Holy Bible.
So when we are interested in what Plato thought, we can go to one section of the library and read what he had to say; if we are interested in what Shevchenko wrote, we go to another shelf and we read what he wrote; and if we are interested in what Jesus the Christ said and did back in his day, we go to another place and read about that. We can debate what it all means, but nothing is being added to the collections of the primary works of Plato, Shevchenko or Jesus of Nazareth. So we become like historians, playing with words [literary analysis] and contexts [historical analysis] to discern the implications of his teachings for us today. Don’t get me wrong: we need the Bible and we need to study it. But think about it: doesn’t this approach treat Christ as if he had done and taught nothing new for past 2000 years? Is this the way we would treat someone who was “Truly Risen?” If Plato were still walking the earth, wouldn’t we just go up to him and ask him for his philisophical thoughts on contemporary questions; if Shevchenko were still with us, wouldn’t we commission him directly to write a poem about our situation today? So if Christ were really risen, wouldn’t it make sense to learn from him in person, rather than just by studying what he did way back when?
Well, Plato and Shevchenko are still waiting for their resurrection bodies, but Christ is alive here and now. In a few weeks, we will celebrate his ascension, when he took his human form back into the glory of the heavens; but he did not really leave us. He lives within the hearts of all believers, and he lives most powerfully as the head of His Church. This is one of the most powerful truths about the world: the Church is more than just the union of all believers (and it is certainly more than a building made of stone*): it is the union of all believers with the living Christ as its head. The head hears, the head speaks. Christ did not cease to teach us 2000 years ago, and his voice lives on in the hymnography of the Church, in her Canons, in her prayers, and even in the loving pastoral guidance given to us by her members (etc.).
What do you think of this? I can think of two reactions. The first is of doubt. We act as if we would prefer a living Christ who came and visited and spoke to us as he visited the people of Nazareth (he dined with Simon and Lazarus, he gave sermons to crowds of thousands, he taught and prayed with his disciplies every day). We want him to do the same with us. But seeing this Liturgy, and all the services and prayers of the Church as the very words of Christ spoken to us now in this moment – doesn’t this strike you as being more real, more practical, and more useful? But regardless of how we feel about it, there is no doubt that this is the way that “God is with us!” The Jews wanted a Messiah who was something other than Jesus (you can almost hear them saying; “somehow, I thought he’d be taller”); I fear that we disrespect him the same way in his modern incarnation. We know the imperfections in so many members of the Church (and especially in this, your priest), but can’t we see through these human frailties to the eternal perfection that is the fullness of the Church, the Truth of the Living Crhsit? It is hard for us to accept this of the Church, just as it was hard for the Jews and Greeks to accept that a mortal man was also the eternal Son of God. Hard? Yes. But no less true.
There is a second reaction that we must also come to grips with, and it comes as we overcome the first. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God (Hebrews 10:31). [Christ is Risen, but…] A living Christ is much more demanding than a dead one. He sees us, knows us, and gives us very real direction on how to live better lives. He can diagnose our sins and tell us how to live as love really demands. It is much easier for us to interpret what he said so long ago than it is to hear what he is saying to us now [i.e. because the interpretation is always done by our ego]. But his love is no less now than it was then; his truth is no less now than it was then; and the beauty that comes from following this way is no less now that it was then.
How do we find this guidance? How do we learn from the living Christ? By doing the same things we have been taught all our lives. First, we give our lives – our bodies, our minds, and our souls – completely over to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Church. Then we live the life the way it was meant to be lived. Pray the prayers in our prayer books. Live the Liturgies offered within our parishes. Love our neighbor as ourselves. Learn the wisdom of God in the writings of the Church Fathers and Mothers. Actively seek out the counsel of wise Orthodox teachers. Silence the distractions within our minds and hear that still, quiet voice of God within our hearts.
God is not confined within a tomb, nor is confined within history.
The Lord is Risen – aTruly He is Risen. And He is with us this and every day.
* If there is time, develop this into a second example: treating the Church as if it were dead and finite.
