I believe that the Queen sends special letters to people who are 100 years old; I haven’t got one yet as you can guess. I’m not royalty by any means, but I conceived an idea of sending birthday letters to members of this parish and offering Mass for them around the day. It’s a side-effect of the parish census we held at the beginning of this year. The content of every letter is pretty much the same to avoid any hint of favouritism, but nonetheless I think about each person when I prepare the letter and plan when and where to say Mass for them. Today I was told that when I announced on Thursday evening that the Mass was offered for Dougie Forbes, someone assumed that Dougie had died. Thank God he hadn’t! But that reaction gave me some food for thought.
Somehow Christianity has been built around death. The very core of the Christian message at the very beginning was about Jesus’ death and his return to life. The gospels as we know them, were built around that message, when believers wanted to learn more about the One they believed in. The promise of life that never ends made the Christian message so attractive. The promise of freedom from suffering, pain, injustice, uncertainties and all those bits and pieces making life on earth so miserable attracted many people, particularly those powerless and exploited. It was the faith that gave internal freedom to those enslaved in any way. Although Christianity was built on the death of Jesus, it’s not a cult of death. Martyrdom has been the ultimate sacrifice of believers met in extraordinary circumstances, but Jesus’ followers have never been encouraged to look for it. Christian message is not that of death, but of life.
A couple of minutes ago we heard about some women coming to the tomb where Jesus had been buried. They were going there to give some traditional treatment offered to the dead that they hadn’t manage to do earlier because of the Jewish feast. Their main problem was how to remove the stone closing the tomb. But when they arrived they faced much greater difficulty: Jesus’ body wasn’t there. The news started spreading, and that was very good news indeed: ‘Jesus has risen, He is alive!’ His disciples, shocked by his seemingly premature death, scared to follow suit, with shattered dreams of earthly power and influence, began to grasp what he had been telling them about his fate. They realised that with Jesus’ resurrection any danger, any threat, any suffering is only temporary; that there’s hope reaching far beyond the grave, and that there is love that never fails.
In the darkness of this night we celebrate that moment when hope beyond any hope was born, when the open and empty tomb proclaimed the victory of life over death, when the love of Christ defeated the hatred of the enemy. St Paul calls us tonight to adopt that attitude of Christ in our everyday lives, in our everyday struggle, in our everyday decisions. It’s the call to live in love, to hope for the best, and to believe in life that never ends. It’s coming!