“Women desirousdesiring their Dead
Saviour to anoint…
But alas, he is
no more!
Desire transformed
liberating all desire!”
This is my Easter “haiku” as I contemplate Mary Magdalene and the other women friends of Jesus who, very early after the Sabbath, went out with the intention of touching their dead Master and anointing him, in order to complete the burial rites he merited. (Mt 28:1-6)
Love moved them – to brave the dark, even to risk being identified with him who was condemned as a “criminal.” Love left them, but only for awhile, to awaken, to increase desire and transformed them into who they are called to be – lovers, one and all.
Fearless, passionate lover. The more I live, the more I come to be convinced that there’s no other way to define a disciple of Jesus but this. And I got a confirmation from one of the quotes in the latest issue of The Tablet:
“So when you say to yourself each year, “How shall I observe Easter?”, don’t say, “Do I understand the atonement?” (…) Above all, don’t ask moral questions about whether you are good enough, whether you have obeyed enough.
No, don’t ask those questions at Easter. Ask yourself instead whether you are a lover.
Ask yourself whether you can love much. Ask yourself whether your passion will sustain you – kill you, yes, but sustain you – through your death and his so that you too can await him in the Garden on Easter morning. (Melvyn Matthews, Nearer than Breathing, SPCK 2002)
No, don’t ask those questions at Easter. Ask yourself instead whether you are a lover.
Ask yourself whether you can love much. Ask yourself whether your passion will sustain you – kill you, yes, but sustain you – through your death and his so that you too can await him in the Garden on Easter morning. (Melvyn Matthews, Nearer than Breathing, SPCK 2002)
