April 6, 2008 THE UNFINISHED IMAGE
We didn’t have much time. Like the women who made their way to this place two millennia ago, we wound our way early in the morning through the old streets of Jerusalem. Three centuries after their time this ancient stone church had been built by Constantine. It houses the most sacred spot on the face of the earth, the sepulcher of Jesus. Today’s pilgrims at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher have 30 minutes in which to celebrate Mass at the tomb of Jesus. I was privileged to preside at the Mass of 50 pilgrims in our group. We gathered outside the ornate chamber which is large enough only for the priest and two attendants to enter. The liturgy of the Word is celebrated outside. For the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the priest enters the small chamber to use for an altar the marble slab located above the resting place for Jesus’ body. Catholic ritual requires that regardless of the day of the year only the Mass for Easter Sunday is celebrated there. After proclaiming the gospel of the resurrection and before entering the sacred chamber I preached the following homily.
“This is a sacred place. It is made sacred by the dead body of Jesus lain here. It is made holy by the discovery by the faithful women on a Sunday morning many years ago that Jesus had been raised from the dead.
“St. Paul said “Unless Jesus be risen from the dead, our faith is in vain.” What took place here is the cornerstone of our Christian faith. But what does it mean?
“We know with our faith that because of the resurrection, there will be life after death. Most of us have seen that faith in the countenances of those we loved; people who have gone forward with confidence towards death because of their faith in the next life won for us by the resurrection of Jesus.
“But it also means something for us now in the present. Not only does real life come after death; real life comes through death, all the deaths that make up part of our lives. Here at this Mass, at this moment, bring to God all the little deaths of your life: the lost toys of childhood, the insult from an older brother. And all the big deaths: the betrayal of a friend, the death of a dream, the loss of a spouse or a child. Bring them here. And also, another kind of death that is of our own making, the death that comes with sin.
“Leave them here – in this tomb. Allow all of these deaths to die. Real life comes through death.
“Jesus brings new life through death. This is a sacred place. It is also where sacred action takes place, first by the rising of Jesus from the dead; also, by the power of God bringing us through death to new life.”