Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR C EASTER SUNDAY - 8.4.07 Acts 10,34.37-43; Col 3,1-4; Jn 20,1-9 Jesus our anointed Lord Jesus’
anointing for burial.
For Easter this year, Luke’s Gospel provides insights into Our Lord’s burial
& resurrection. He says: On the first day of the week, at crack of dawn, the
women went to the tomb with prepared spices, to anoint the body of Jesus. In
ancient cultures, oil had special healing & strengthening powers; it was
used to consecrate & ‘make holy’, prophets & kings, as also altars
& sacred places & vessels. In Ps 23,5
the words: ‘You, Lord, anoint my head with oil’ convey the insight,
that the anointing with chrysm, brings about God’s blessing, consecration
& empowerment. The very word “Messiah” means “Anointed One” = one
who par excellence is anointed, empowered & appointed by God, to be God’s
Envoy. The same word Messiah is translated in Greek by ‘Christos’ = Christ,
which also means ‘Anointed One’ & made holy with the Holy Spirit. At Jesus’ time, the burial practices required that the body be
anointed with spiced oils, before being laid to rest in the tomb. But Jesus had
been buried in haste before Passover which went from at 6pm of Friday to 6pm of
Saturday. So at dawn, on the 1st day of the week, the women hurried to Jesus’
tomb, to complete the process of his burial rites, but were told that Jesus had
risen. Later however, they realized that another woman, Mary sister of Lazarus
& Martha -6 days before Passover- had anointed Jesus’ feet with a very
costly perfume (‘pure nard’: Jn 12,3) & Jesus accepted her extraordinary
“christening” as an anticipation of his rite of anointing, which would not
be performed at his burial. While at Jesus’ time women were not thought to be
reliable witness in a court of law, it was Mary & the other women who first
heard & proclaimed: Christ is Risen!, Christos aneste! As
our King rests in his tomb. Since earliest years, Christians have given extraordinary significance
to the day of Christ’s resting. It became Sunday, the day that par excellence
is ‘The Day of the Risen Lord = Dominica”. Jesus rose on the ‘1st day of
the Jewish week’, on the day after the Sabbath, which was & is observed as
a day of rest to celebrate & imitate the “rest” which God took after the
six days of his wonderful creation. The ‘Law of Rest’ which was owed to
every Saturday, was even more sacred on the Saturday of Passover, which got the
disciples of Jesus to quickly lay the dead Body of Jesus in his tomb, &
observe the prescribed rest. Since the earliest years, this same ‘1st day of
the week’ was singled out by Jesus’ disciples to gather for the Lord’s
Supper, the Eucharist. Christian writers have expressed in lyrical exalted language, some
amazing insights into the day of rest: for God, for Jesus & for us. God
rested on the 6th day from his work of creation, & Jesus ‘rested’ from
his horrendous suffering on the Cross. But for them, ‘rest’ is amazingly
creative . This is what an ancient author writes: On Holy Saturday, silence
& stillness hovers over our Christian wold: silence because our King sleeps.
But, while sleeping in the flesh, he goes to raise those who for centuries had
sat in darkness & in the shadow of death, waiting to be set free: Adam &
Eve, Patriarchs & prophets, all the just on earth... Awake o sleepers, arise
from the dead; I am life for all who are dead. You’re work of my hands,
fashioned in my image. Arise: you in me & I in you, together we are one. For
you, who had been expelled from a garden, I was handed over to evil people in a
garden, & in a garden -after my crucifixion- I was laid to rest. Look at the
spittle on my face, the blows on my cheek, the scourging on my back. Look at my
hands, feet & side as I rest & sleep - ponder & awake from your
sleep of death - Enter the glory of your Lord. ______________________________________ |
