EASTER VIGIL April 3, 2021 St Austin Church Austin, TX
Tonight we
hear the Gospel of St. Mark. And we can
sum it up in the ancient maxim, going back to Roman times, that “clothes
make the man.” (show off vestment) In any case, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of
James, and Salome, very early on Sunday morning go to the tomb. When they get there, just after sunrise, they
discover the stone is rolled away! With
concern and trepidation, they gingerly make their way into the tomb, and there
they see something that utterly amazes them.
What did they see?
An Angel? NO!
They did NOT see an angel. In St.
Matthew’s Gospel the women see an angel.
In St. Luke’s Gospel the women meet two
gentlemen in dazzling apparel who could be angels. And in St. John’s Gospel Mary Magdalene sees
no one there at first, but on returning later she meets Jesus Himself, but no
angel.
But our Gospel tonight is St. Mark,
and he does not have an
angel. What the women find in the tomb
that utterly amazes them is “a young man sitting
on the right side, clothed in a white robe.” Mark knew the word for angel, and if he had
meant an angel he would have written an angel.
But Mark states it was a young man clothed in a white garment.
Now ¿who is
this guy? What is he doing here? Where did he come from? Well, I think we have seen him before. Think back to last Sunday, to Palm Sunday
when we heard St Mark’s version of the Passion of our Lord, and the events that
lead up to today’s Gospel. Was there any
young man in that story that kind of stuck out? Well, yes there was.
Do you remember in the Garden of
Gethsemani, when Jesus was arrested, St. Mark relates: "With that, all deserted him and fled." Then St. Mark adds an unusual detail
that only he recounts: "There was a
young man following him who was covered by nothing but a linen cloth. As they seized him he left the cloth behind
and ran off naked." ¿Remember him, the
streaker? How could you forget? What an image! It is so Austin!
What is this all about? St. Mark, I contend, has fashioned his story
as a deeply symbolic passage. For the
Scriptures nakedness is not erotic.
Rather nakedness is a cause for shame.
In the Garden of Eden, before they sinned, Adam and Eve are presented as
being perfectly comfortable with being naked.
But once they sinned, nakedness became a source of shame. And they hid themselves from God, because
they were afraid. Nakedness becomes a source of
alienation and separation from God and from each other. Now this young man, naked, flees the Garden
of Gethsemane just as our first parents fled the Garden of Eden.
In the Bible nakedness is a symbol of
vulnerability, of powerlessness, of poverty, of being without identity and not
belonging. In the Bible, nakedness is not
a good place to be.
This young man in Mark’s Gospel,
naked, defenseless, terrified, running for his life, ashamed and scarred, is a
symbol for all of us when we are without God’s grace. We run scarred through a terrifying and
indifferent universe, with no meaning, no belonging, no identity.
Given what has been going on in the world over the past year,
with the pandemic, so many deaths, economic hardship, isolation and loneliness,
so much trouble and violence in so many places, it is easy to feel
vulnerable.
We too can feel naked and defenseless, filled with sadness and loneliness.
Children from a Roman parish wrote reflections on the
Stations of the Cross for this Good Friday for Pope Francis to use. One girl wrote: “The sadness of loneliness sometimes
becomes unbearable, we feel ‘abandoned’ by everyone, unable to smile again.
Like Jesus, we find ourselves fallen to the ground.” Many of us have been there during this long
Covid Lent.
On Thursday he was naked; on Easter
he is clothed in a white garment.
On Thursday he was running for his
life; on Easter he is seated calmly.
On Thursday he was terrified,
frightened, scarred; on Easter he is calm, assured, and at peace.
Before Jesus’ death and resurrection, this
young man flees naked from the Garden, just like Adam and Eve fled from the
Garden when they discovered they were naked and hid from God.
After Jesus’ death and resurrection, this
same young man is now dressed in a white robe and boldly proclaims the
resurrection: "He has been raised up; he is not
here!" AND THAT YOUNG MAN ROBED IN
WHITE REPRESENTS EACH OF THE BAPTIZED,
EACH OF US!
Something really important has changed. The sign of that interior change is signified by being dressed in a white robe, which is the Baptismal robe, the sign of Baptism. In just a few minutes, Elizabeth, Ryan, John and Janice, who will be baptized right here, will put on a white robe over their clothes, as a symbol of that new identity. The Baptismal robe is an ancient symbol of being made a new creation. And spiritually, each one of us who are baptized is robed in white.
My friends, that young man in the
Gospel, a symbolic figure, represents every one of us. Before the salvific
death of Christ, before redemption was won for us, we stood fearful and ashamed
before God. We were naked sinners, and
ran away from God. But now that Christ
has conquered sin and death we have been clothed in a new dignity, a new
identity through Baptism. Now we are
God’s beloved children, and stand before God unashamed.
We have put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
which is the very best of all Easter outfits.
At our baptisms we wore white.
But every day we wear that baptismal dignity as a member of the
Body of Christ. Spiritually too, clothes
make the man, or woman.
By our lives, like that young man in
the Gospel, we too proclaim the power of Christ’s resurrection: "He
has been raised up.” Christ is not among
the dead in the tombs. The Risen Christ
is here, among us.
What a beautiful Easter outfit! HAPPY EASTER! ALLELUIA!!!
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