Sitting through Saturday

We are an impatient people. The Great Vigil Mass, meant to finish with the new day starts around 7.00/8.00pm so we are celebrating the Resurrection and home in time for hot chocolate and Match of the Day. This, of course, is me being flippant - a tone that creeps in when I am bothered by something.

The something is the waiting, not a thing I am good at to be honest, I can meditate for hours....but waiting always brings out the 'there must be something I can be doing' in me.
But today, there is nothing else. We do not create the Resurrection, the Risen Christ is not for us to conjure up. It is for the Father to give back the life that was surrendered.

And really, why should He? Imagine our God, as big as you can imagine, beyond what you can imagine. Imagine our God of Trinity, dancing in love and life since forever, and one of Him is lost, for us. The gyroscope of power unbalanced, winding down, all because we don't know how much we mean to Him. Was three days the limit that they could be disjoined, are we just talking mystical numbers? The Father had to bring Jesus back for the sake of the Trinity, otherwise God truly is dead, for ever. And then what? Scary thought.

The Resurrection is a gift to us, Divine Power with full knowledge of human weakness, we should try to deserve it. I used to live in hope of being like Mary Magdalen, the one who didn't give up, the one who was called to witness. This Lent I have had more in common with Peter; too, too human, never quite understanding, never quite brave enough. But like Peter I am going to try. We are Easter people, with sand in our shoes from the Lenten journey, a shared suffering and a light in our hearts from the Truth of the Resurrection.

Not long to wait now.

wordinthehand2009

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