Mark 16:1-8

Easter Vigil - Year B

Mark 16:1-8

Happy Easter, brothers and sisters. 

The great human questions when people arrived at self-consciousness, has been: Why does our life end? The other living beings do not know that their life is over and only man has this consciousness and he worries about the thought of death, because he is afraid, and struggles with what is peculiar to him… and he is called to be reconciled with this thought. If you are aware that your life has a beginning and an end, you will build your life in a different way. This is part of his human condition. Even God cannot create a man who is not mortal. It would be another creature. 

Here the question arises: If we are destined to die, why did God bring us into the world? If death is our last destiny, and if God exists, then he is playing with us. Since ancient times people have tried to give an answer to this disturbing question and in the Ancient Middle East they have responded with myths—which are their philosophies. What answers did they give to these questions? They have said that, when God created humanity, He has given them death. Life was in his hands. And the answer that Siduri gives to Gilgamesh (a legendary character from Sumerian mythology, 2750 BC), who is about to move from the world of the living to the world of the dead, he goes searching for his friend Enkidu, but he does not give him hope. The gods have monopolized for themselves immortality. 

It is a disconsolate reflection that Siduri communicates to Gilgamesh. It is a reflection that we also find in the bible. Thus, David in his prayer says: "Our earthly life is but a shadow without hope" (1 Chr 29:15). Qohelet is even more direct: "In reality, people and animals have the same luck: one dies and the other dies, all have the same breath of life and man does not surpass animals. All are short-lived. Everyone walks to the same place, all come from the dust and all return to the dust (Ecl 3:19-20). 

The reflection of Qohelet is disheartening—it does not have more light than human reasoning. The psalmists have begun to intuit a valid answer to this question that has always anguished humanity. The psalmists understood that one should not begin with philosophical reasoning about the immortality of the soul. They invited people to reflect on the logic of love. If God has entered in a dialogue of love with man, and if his love is authentic, then He is not playing with us. For example, the author of Psalm 16 concludes his prayer by saying: "You, oh God, cannot allow your saint (according to the translation, but the Hebrew word is 'hasid', which means 'your beloved')... You cannot allow your beloved to stay in Sheol. You must show me the way of life; what is the meaning of life to get out of Sheol, because you cannot be without my company. And now, says the psalmist, you will fill me with joy in your presence, eternal joy at your right.” 

These intuitions of the psalmists are the correct ones, but they still do not have the sure answer about the meaning of our existence. It is on the night of Easter that God has given a definitive answer to this question. Let's try to imagine that we are on Calvary on the afternoon of that Friday, April 7 of the year 30, the day Jesus was crucified. Joseph of Arimathea is moving away, after having rolled that great stone in front of the tomb. He attended the ignominious death of a righteous one—one who has lived loving and only loving and I think that his reflection has led him to conclude, with the words of Qohelet: "The same fate touches everyone: the innocent and the guilty, the pure and the impure, the one who offers sacrifices and to the one who does not offer them, to the just and to the sinner, to the one who swears and to the one who is hesitant to swear... the same fate comes to all ... man’s heart is full of evil during his life and he ends is with the dead!" (Ecl 9:2-3). 

Joseph of Arimathea must have ended like this ... disconsolate. Darkness and silence descended over the city of Jerusalem. The families are gathered in the houses, celebrating the paschal dinner. Nobody moves, because the great rest has begun. And this is how the Sabbath of the Hebrew Passover takes place. Jesus has been put in the tomb and the people are gathered in the houses for the paschal supper. Saturday begins and at sunset that Saturday, the new day begins. 

And some women leave their houses because the Easter rest is over. They are the same ones who have attended in the distance to the death and burial of the Master. 

Let's listen to the narration: 

"When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome 
bought spices so that they might go and anoint him. Very early when the sun had risen, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb. They were saying to one another, ‘Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’" 

Before getting acquainted with this Gospel text it is important to draw attention to an error in which a non-attentive reader may fall. Who are these readers? They are those who read the text of the Easter events narrated by the four evangelists, as if they were four pages of chronicle. And, what happens to these readers? They are immediately confronted with inconsistencies, in contradictory and irreconcilable information. 

As we will hear shortly, Mark, for example, says that the women saw 'a young man' in the sepulcher. Luke says there were 'two men'. Matthew describes a great scene. He says: "Suddenly there was a strong tremor: An angel of the Lord came down from heaven, came and rolled the stone and sat on top. Her appearance was like that of a lightning and her dress white as snow. The guards began to tremble with fear and they were as dead. The angel said to the women: You do not fear." (Mt 28:2-5). 

As a result, the little-educated reader is disoriented and confused, and asks, What is it that these women have seen? Who can explain this? The intelligent reader asks another question; it is what we should ask and the question is: What do the evangelists want to tell me... what images do they use, what language do they use? Therefore, we must distinguish the message, the language; the images serve to show the message. 

We cannot take these images as if they were a chronicle. We must keep this in mind to truly understand the message of the evangelist. We, on this Easter night, find the version of this Easter experience as narrated by Mark. And we will try to understand what the evangelist wants to tell us. And we begin by explaining the reason why women go to the tomb. Mark says they are going to anoint the body of Jesus. It seems like an information, but it is not. There was no custom of anointing the corpse; the corpse was only washed, dressed and then wrapped it in a sheet. 

In fact, Matthew and John say that the women went to visit the sepulcher. This was certainly done at that time, because for three days after the burial, people visited the diseased person to cry and also to make sure that the death was definitive, for the burial was done immediately after death and it could be cases of only an apparent death. This is the reason why women—as Matthew and John mention—went to visit the sepulcher. Why does Mark introduce this anointing? First of all, I will say that the evangelist wants to make the reader reflect and meditate on the gesture that these women are going to practice. It is the only thing that the person can do facing death: anointing a corpse, embalming it ... but what do you get? He who embalms a corpse does not conquer death ... he builds a monument to the victory of death. 

That's why the evangelist wants us to reflect: the person, with all his capacity, he will never be able to overcome death. Those who seek to prolong life in some way will get only palliatives. But there is another reason. To anoint the body of Jesus, women must roll that stone that separates the world of the living from the world of the dead. But that stone is immovable. 

The evangelist Mark wants to draw attention to this stone. One can embalm a corpse, but one is unable to move the stone. When one dies, one is separated forever from the world of the living. These are two worlds. They do not communicate anymore. Man cannot open the door to enter into communication between these two worlds. Let's try to imagine what these women would expect that Easter morning when they went to the tomb. You could imagine a 'reanimation'—as we said before. But, in the case of Jesus, who had the body crushed, this resuscitation was absolutely impossible. They could expect a 'resurrection' according to the existing conception, although not all the people of Israel believed that. The Pharisees believed in a 'resurrection', but understood as a 'reanimation' of a corpse. But, when did they expect this 'resurrection'? After hundreds, thousands or millions of years. They said that when the Messiah came, the kingdom of the Son of Man, the righteous would recover their lives. 

This conception had appeared two centuries before Christ. And it is the hope of the resurrection that Martha believed, when she says to Jesus: 'I know that my brother, being righteous, will be resurrected when the kingdom of the Son of Man arrives.' But it was only the Pharisees who believed in this resurrection. The Sadducees despised this belief. And the ordinary people had other problems ... they did not worry about this issue of the resurrection. Jesus had spoken of the resurrection. He had said that whoever believes in him does not die. What ends is the biological life, but the life of the Eternal that he has introduced into this world, and that it is given not to the dead but to the living ... this life is not touched at the end of the biological life. Jesus spoke of a life that does not end, a 'no-death'. But the people had not understood what he had said. 

Another light—the light of Easter—was needed to understand what Jesus had said about victory over death. Not an extension of the biological life. Let us pay attention: this life is not given to the dead, it is given to the living. We do not die because we have this life given to us by the Eternal. "Very early when the sun had risen, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb.” 

We have three indications of time that are important. The evangelist insists on saying 'very early' - 'when the sun had risen'. I would not want to exaggerate the allegory of the symbol, but the insistence of the evangelist invites us to think that he is alluding to the new light that is about to conquer the darkness of the world. That 'darkness' that has enveloped the entire humanity in despair. Now, this darkness is about to disappear; the light of a new day breaks. And the women said: Who will move the stone? It is the obstacle that human force is not capable of moving. Only an intervention from heaven can open the communication between the two worlds. 

Let's listen to what the women who go to the tomb find: 

"When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back;
it was very large. On entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe,
and they were utterly amazed. He said to them, ‘Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him. But go and tell his disciples and Peter, He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.'" 

The evangelist Mark notes that when the women go to the tomb they "looked up." It means that, until that moment, their eyes were on the ground. It is not a secondary detail. Mark was not present. Therefore, by saying that they 'looked up' Mark is giving us a message. These women are the image of what humanity has done up to that moment: People have sought the answer to the enigma of death, keeping their eyes on the earth. Placing life expectancy in technical resources, in science, in mummification... with the look towards the earth they had only gotten there. Today the techniques are different. They can be called 'cloning', 'hibernation'... but the goal is the same: make this life eternal. And the answer is sought on earth and the result will be the same as always. The most one can get is a prolongation of old age of this biological life. 

Victory over death cannot come from the world. Facing the sepulcher—any sepulcher—Mark invites us to do what the women did: To look up. Let yourself be enveloped by the light that comes from heaven. And the women, who have raised their eyes, realize that the stone that could not be moved by mere human strength, it had been moved from above. It has been rolled outside. Someone has done what they could not do. Someone has reversed the potency of death. Jesus has entered the sheol and emptied this sheol. He has conquered death. 

You can see the door on the floor when Jesus enters the sheol and this door has ended with death... They see death running away, defeated forever. Victory over death in the sense of prolonging biological life is not victory over death... for death returns then ready to take possession of the prey. Victory over death occurs only when life is given to death, when the biological life that ends is given to death, but to this man a life has been donated, that the monster of death cannot touch. The women enter the tomb. They have passed the border. They have come into contact with the world of the dead. 

They thought to find the dead in Sheol, find the elders... instead, and here is the surprise, they see a young man. Here is a Greek word: 'neaniskon' a word that we already found last week when we saw this young man in Gethsemane when he left the sheet in the hands of those who wanted to apprehend him… and he has left the sheet in their hands and fled, naked. Here we find the young man again. And it is the only time that this term 'young' appears here, in the sepulcher. And now it is not wrapped in a sheet, but in a white, splendid garment. 

It is the sign for these women who enter sheol and expected to find the old life, death, now find that life is young. They do not find an old life. In sheol, in the underworld, and together with Jesus a life has entered that will always be young. One does not get old in God's world because time does not pass anymore. And this young man is sitting 'to the right'. The Greek term is 'entois dexios'... on the right... everything is positive, everything is beautiful in this world where women expected to find corpses. Everything is beautiful because it is about the new world, the world of God, the world of the Eternal. 

The white garment is the symbol of light, of celebration, of joy. The women are scared. The reaction is surprising. We would expect joy, but instead it is stupor. Here we have a Greek word: 'ecstasy': It is as if they had gone out of themselves and entered a world that was not expected. They are puzzled. The stupor is rightly caused because of this encounter with this celestial messenger. Fear, trepidation... are the normal reactions when the Bible narrates the encounter with the world of God, with the divine. 

And Mark, more than the others, emphasizes this reaction of fright in these women. This is the first point. This young man tells the women: "Do not be afraid. You seek Jesus the Nazarene, the crucified one." These are two extremes in the public life of Jesus: Nazareth, from where he begins, and Calvary, where he is crucified. This life has entered the world of God. "He is not here, he is risen. Look at the place where they had laid him." They hoped to find, not only this deceased in sheol, the beloved person who had been buried by Joseph of Arimathea… but all the dead had to come out of the sheol. And this young man says: NO. Here life is young. 

When the life of the Eternal has entered with Jesus, he has made this limbo, this sheol, disappear. God has intervened. The fate of this crucified man has changed. And this is the invitation that the young man makes to the women: "Go now to tell his disciples and Peter that he will go before them to Galilee. There they will see him, as he had told them." It is the assignment given to these women. Not to tell the experience that they had, but to invite the disciples to go to Galilee. For the disciples to make the experience what those women have done. 

What does this invitation mean? The disciples have to trace back the way when they followed the Master… They have not seen where the life that is given ends. They must go back this way and at the end of the journey they will realize that He was right. And, like the centurion, they will recognize in the face of Jesus who gives his life, the face of God who is love and only love. And they will perceive within themselves the voice that will assure them: ‘If you live like him, out of love, you will enter with him in the world of the risen ones. 

It is the experience that this young man invites us to do to each one of us. Take again in your hands this gospel according to Mark, which departs from Galilee, walk with the Master along his life and, like the disciples, we will also reach Calvary. walk along the life of the Master with the Master and, like the disciples, we will also reach Calvary. because he has donated his life for love. And God is love and only love. What do the women do? "They ran out of the grave ...." 

And, the evangelist Mark says that they were "scared and in ecstasy. And out of sheer fear, they said nothing to anyone." We see here again this theme of 'fear' and the conclusion of the Gospel of Mark (because this is where the Gospel of Mark ends): "And out of sheer fear, they said nothing to anyone." There is no book of world literature that ends in this way. The reason is very clear. The Gospel of Mark does not end—it begins, because we have to return to Galilee. Then, leaving from Galilee and walking under the gaze of the one who donates his life, then this trip, imitating the words of the centurion, is concluded. Why are the women afraid? 

The fright is a theological reason. These women represent the Christian community... why are they scared? If they had met the body of Jesus, they would have cried... they would have said: here is a righteous one who finished his life this way, and we will mourn him throughout our lives. And then, their lives would have continued exactly as before, with their questions, with their projects, with their dreams. And also the apostles would have continued to do the same kind of life as before. Nothing would have changed... only the memory of this Jesus of Nazareth would remain. If so, they would not have been scared. 

Why are they afraid? Faced with the resurrection, If he was right... everything changes. If he was right, it means that a full life is not to be kept for oneself, retreating on ourselves but the successful life is that which is donated for love. And this is scary. If we are not afraid, we have not understood the Easter proposal. The successful person is the one who is introduced to the glory of the Father; He who is really the Son of God is the one who has given his life. The one who has made the experience of Easter cannot help but be afraid. If he is not afraid, it means that he has not understood. 

There is another reason: "Do not say anything to anyone." Why not say anything to anyone? It is exactly the fear that we also have today to announce the Risen One and the Easter message. When we announce the moral proposals made by Jesus of Nazareth, we rejoice. There is no humanism more beautiful than the one proposed by Jesus. The beatitudes are the apex of the proposals that people can do to be fully human. But the temptation is to stop there. And Christian humanism, the one Jesus proposes, has value, even without Easter because in the depths of our person we know that the true man is the one that Jesus proposes... not the one who kills, who oppresses, who offends, who steals. NO. But the one who loves; this is really a person. The alternative is still the time of the beasts. This proposal would remain standing even without Easter. 

When it comes to announcing life beyond life, the life of the Eternal that has been donated, we also begin to find ourselves in trouble. We are fearful to announce this truth that completely changes the way of relating with the reality of this world. It changes the way we see life, family, money, career ... it changes everything. And regarding this Easter perspective we also feel shy to present it. 

Sometimes, even during the celebration of the Easter Vigil, the preachers, instead of announcing (what should make the eyes shine) this victory over death, they give many recommendations... very interesting ones, but many times they do not have the courage to announce this central truth of our faith: the life of the Eternal who overcomes death. But I think, too, that this silence of the women has another meaning. Another message for us. 

The announcement of the Gospel opens with the silence of the women. They do not say anything to anyone. It is the beginning of the proclamation of the Gospel. Return from Galilee. In Mark, these women, more than the image of those who who runs to announce the Easter message, they are the image of the ones who listen, who internalize the experience they have done. Silence, before the announcement, is necessary. And with these women, and with all those who make the experience of Easter, there is an internal convulsion. It leads to a balance about life prospects that are completely new. It radically changes the meaning of existence when seen in the light of Easter. 

So, these women do not talk. First, they must be aware of the change that has been done inside them. They should be aware of this inner jolt and only then can they invite others to follow the same path to reach the vision of the Risen One. 

I wish everyone a good Easter.