John 20:
11-18
Rev. Mary
Sue Barnett
April 19,
2014
 |
| Betty Smith, Mary Sue Barnett, Denise Menard Davis from Christ Sophia Inclusive Catholic Community in Louisville |
Yesterday
was Good Friday.
Good
Fridays, they come and they go.
Most of us
here have lived long enough to have experienced many Holy Weeks, and with that,
many Good Fridays.
Over all
the years there have been cloudy, cold and dreary Good Fridays, as well as
years of warm, breezy, sun-drenched Good Fridays, like yesterday.
Over the
many years of our lives we have probably placed ourselves in a sanctuary on
Good Friday where it is quiet, dark and somber,
where there
is a recalling of the passion narratives and
where there
are crosses large and small draped with red or black cloth.
Perhaps
there have been Good Fridays in our lives that have coincided with our own
personal losses and suffering when the rawness of the crucifixion cuts right
through to our own weak and weary hearts.
Maybe there
have been Good Fridays in our lives when we have felt righteously, fiercely
disturbed by the violence of the crucifixion because we are so disturbed by the
same violence in our own day.
Perhaps we
have spent Good Fridays away from a sanctuary for being estranged from the
church.
What was
Good Friday like for you this year? Just yesterday it was Good Friday.
Today is
Holy Saturday.
This year,
2014, the skies are blue and the day is sun-drenched and warm. And we are here
together in a sanctuary.
Holy
Saturday follows Good Friday with a profound quiet.
It holds
within it an inexplicable silence and stillness.
The kind of
silence that settles in.
A silence
beyond silence.
It is a
muteness that follows violence and trauma.
A life has
been poured out and taken
So the
human breath is gone.
There is
vigilance at the tomb----
an unlikely
place where the deepest mysteries of our faith begin to unfold.
The
readings chosen for today's liturgy can guide us into the mystery of Holy
Saturday.
The opening
words of John's Gospel read:
"In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the
Word was God. The Word was in the beginning with God. All things came into Being
through the Word, and without the Word, not one thing came into Being."
Theologically,
this passage can be also be read as follows:
"In
the beginning was Sophia, and Sophia was with God, and Sophia was God. Sophia
was in the beginning with God. All things came into Being through Sophia, and
without Sophia, not one thing came into Being,"
The
"Word" and "Sophia" are identical in meaning.
They refer
to Divinity, to a Divine Principle that orders the Universe,
to a Divine
Force for Transformation.
The
"Word" and "Sophia" also refer to the Divine as Beloved
One,
the Beloved
One Who yearns, to be sought, to be found, Who is fiercely passionate to be in
connection with people and the world in the deepest possible ways.
In the book
of Proverbs, Sophia is revealed as a Female Who speaks in first person:
"When
God established the heavens, I was
there, before the mountains had been shaped, I was there-----I delight daily in
God's presence and in humanity."
So Jesus is
the "Word."
Jesus is
"Sophia."
When Mary
Magdalen loses Jesus to a violent death, when she goes to the tomb, shaken and
lost, she is led and carried by the Divine Love shared between Jesus and
herself, carried by the passionate, transforming force of the Divine Beloved
that defined their earthly walk together.
When Mary
goes to the tomb, heart-sick and grief-stricken, her connection with Jesus is
not lost.
The
connection has changed.
The
transforming force of Love between them reaches from Mary Magdalen on the earth
to a different realm where Jesus has become the Risen Christ----the Christ
Sophia.
In the
Gospel of Mary Magdalen (a "non-canonical Gospel discovered in 1896) Mary
Magdalen and the disciples experience the presence of Christ Sophia who greets
them saying, "Peace be with you, may my Peace arise and be fulfilled
within you!
Be
vigilant, and allow no one to mislead you.
It is
within you that the Blessed One dwells.
Go! Seek!
Find! Walk Forth! Announce the Gospel!"
The Gospel
of Mary Magdalen goes on to say that,
"The
disciples were in sorrow, shedding many tears, and saying:
'How are we
to go out there and announce the Gospel?
They did
not spare Jesus' life, so why should they spare ours?'
Then Mary
Magdalen arose,
She
embraced them all, and began to speak to her brothers:
'Do not
remain in sorrow and doubt, for the Teacher's Grace will guide you and comfort
you. Instead let us praise the Teacher's greatness who has prepared us for
this. The Teacher is calling us to become fully human. Thus Mary turned their
hearts to the Good, and they began to discuss the meaning of the Teacher's
words."
Cynthia
Bourgeault, an Episcopal priest and writer says that the crucifixion did not
destroy the intimacy that Mary Magdalen and Jesus experienced. Rather, the
intimacy spanned the realms. Mary Magdalen walked forth from the garden on
Easter morning a transformed woman.
She walked
forth from the garden on Easter morning, fully human, intimate with Christ
Sophia, determined to slip into holy souls and to make them friends of God and
prophets.
Here we are
on Holy Saturday, 2014.
Sun-drenched
and warm.
In a quiet
sanctuary.
All in all,
the mystery of Holy Saturday remains a mystery.
It is
inextricably connected with Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Perhaps we
are left with the paradoxical words of the Teacher in the Gospel of Mary
Magdalen:
"It is
within you that the Blessed One dwells.
Go! Seek!
Find! Walk Forth! Announce the Gospel!"
And perhaps
we are left with the paradoxical truth that Mary Magdalen, a woman who suffered
the violent loss of her intimate companion, is the one who is fully human and
who carries into the world a transformational force.
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