Easter Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons

Then the angel said to the women in reply, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified* He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ Behold, I have told you.” (Matthew 28:5-7)

My own journey through Lent and Holy Week has been anything but tranquil. At every point difficulties arose out of situations that emerged from nowhere, it was as though I had my own personal Devil, ready to shake everything around me into a challenging encounter. Even Holy Week became a difficult exercise as world events and personal matters intruded on the peace of mind I sought. Perhaps it was all summed up by a notice pinned to the wooden cross our Methodist community put up on our village green, it read; ”Where was God when the children were gassed in Syria?”

Nobody knows who pinned it to the wood of the cross, it was eventually taken down, but I wish it had remained, for the answer to the question is at the heart of the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

No Lent should be easy, no Holy Week without its challenge to our inner and outer faith. Like the Disciples we too have to face the reality and demands of following the Gospel Christ. We cannot depend on clever theology or doctrinal niceties to answer that question, ‘where is God?’ because we firstly need to ask another question, which God do you mean?

You see people often create their own image of God, but for us, the Risen Christ is not the God of military or political power and might, nor of easy answers or magical responses to life’s problems. Christ Jesus our true God comes in close to us, sharing our life, dies on a cross, and descends into the tomb to annihilating death itself, accepting all this so that no part of life is untouched by his presence. That finished Jesus is encountered in the breaking apart of earth's time and suffering, in the divine eruption of risen and transcendent love.

The two Mary’s asked that question at the tomb, it is one countless millions have asked in their own lives, it is the stripping away of everything except our raw selves, because only when we are fearful and anxious, when we seek and yearn, when our hearts and minds can only cry; ‘my God where are you? only then do we begin to hear Christ’s answer clearly: Do not be afraid, ‘I am with you always, even to the end of the age’ (Mt 28:20) Then our hearts will be filled with overflowing joy!

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and to those in the tombs he has given life!