The
death of Jesus shakes everything up. And he knew it would. He even warned his
disciples, telling them, “all of you will have your faith shaken.” But more is
shaken than just their faith. The whole earth shakes, in an earthquake that
shows that earth itself seismically gets what’s going on here, gets that what
is happening in earth-shattering, creation-shattering: the God of all creation
suffers and dies at the hands of creatures, out of love for them.
And what
is revealed when the dust settles, and the sun returns? Life. Even before Jesus’
resurrection, a few holy Jewish people rise from their graves and bear witness
that God shakes us out of death. The Roman soldiers, the death squad, are
shaken out of their murderous careers and recognize who they’ve slain, that in
Jesus, God is with us. The narrator finally draws our attention to the disciples
who were women and who stayed, at a distance, but stayed, were willing to stand
by Jesus in his suffering. We see Joseph of Arimathea who gives up his costly own
tomb, that Jesus might have a decent burial. We see life, we see faith, we see
persistent courageous compassion and we see selfless generosity. That is life.
That is holiness. That’s what Jesus shakes us out of death for.
[I didn't mention this in the homily, but the picture is one I took of one of the oldest churches in Haiti (and, hence, in the "New World"). All was destroyed by the earthquake except the altar.]
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