Homily

I think it’s refreshing to see, in the Acts of the Apostles, that while many great and even miraculous things were happening in the Church during its early years there were also problems and trouble, and St. Luke is not afraid to write about them. When it came time to distribute the food, the Jewish Christians who were Greek speaking complained that their widows were not receiving the same amount of food as the widows who spoke only Aramaic. Discrimination! The apostles decide it is not right that they should neglect preaching and teaching to wait on tables, so they create the office of deacon and ordain seven men. We have two men from our parish who will be ordained to this same office in June, and then they will start refilling your coffee cups, taking your plates away and asking if you want seconds. They will only have one request: No tipping please. They will be icons of humility.

I once read a short piece by Fr. Alexander Schmemann about the followers of Jesus. He wrote that the people who followed Jesus during His public ministry were mostly looking to get something from Him. They wanted help, or healing, or miracles, or freedom from their Roman occupiers—to have their material life made better in one way or another. They did not seem to understand that the Lord’s main message was about God’s love for them, and their need to love God in return, and to love one another as well, and even to love their neighbor. Because of His own love for them, and for us, Jesus said He would offer Himself as a living sacrifice. They didn’t get it. They didn’t understand. For them, Jesus was the man with the handouts, a man Who could give them what they wanted.

Palm Sunday was a great celebration in honor of the Lord, but by the end of the week, when Jesus had not given them what they wanted, they abandoned Him. (And I think this is the same reason so many have abandoned Jesus today as well. Sadly, many people do not want what He offers to them.) In the Garden of Gethsemane His three closest disciples keep falling asleep as He prays in agony. After His arrest, Peter denies Him three times. It says in Matthew’s Gospel, “All the disciples abandoned Him and ran away.” Wholesale desertion.

But there were a few who remained faithful to their Lord. St. John writes, that along with him, “Standing by the cross were His mother, His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.” Later on, Joseph of Arimathea, in a bold move, asks for Jesus’ body and Nicodemus offers the burial spices.

At dawn on the third day, these women who stood by the cross, came to the grave to anoint the body of Jesus, as was the custom. Obviously, they expected His body to still be in the tomb. These women may not have always been present like the other disciples, every time Jesus was speaking about His coming passion, death, and resurrection. But in any case, they had no clue as to what would happen after the cross. They just knew He was dead. They loved Jesus. That’s why they stood by the cross with Him, suffering because He was suffering, and willing to bury Him and now to anoint His body after such a brutal death. Even in this time of great darkness, their love shone like a brilliant light. Their devotion never wavered. Their loyalty never faded. They did not shy away from the cross, they did not turn away from the duties of burial, they did not avoid the last sad duty of anointing the body of the Master Whom they loved. They were faithful to Him until there was no more that they could do for Him. It’s to these faithful women that the resurrection was first announced, because it was so fitting that their loyalty and devotion should include them as the first witnesses. Mark says that at first they were afraid. But that would soon change. Those who had wept at the tomb would become those who would be the first to rejoice. Their great love ended up not in grief and loss, but in seeing the promise of eternal life enter into the reality of their own lives.

I think about how I might have acted had I been a disciple of Jesus. Would I have run off like almost all the men in fear and disappointment or would I have been part of a very tiny group that stayed faithful and loyal like these women. Even more important than wondering what I might have done back then, is what am I willing to do right now.

Are we afraid to love Christ more because of what might happen if we place ourselves more completely into His hands? Are we afraid to stand with Him because the world might criticize us and make fun of us, or because we must reject every false value that the world demands we accept? Are we afraid to love Christ more because some members of our family do not? Are we afraid to love Christ more because it is easier to be lazy, indifferent, materialistic, self-centered? Do we see Jesus mostly as the source of potential handouts and favors, as so many of His disciples did 2,000 years ago?

I saw a TV show just last night where someone said, “Women don’t have any real power in the Church.” Well, I guess it depends on what kind of power you are talking about. The kind of power she meant was the kind of power that most of the disciples were looking for. When they felt they had lost it, they ran away from the Lord. But for me the myrrh-bearing women showed where the true power is in the Church. Their love, their loyalty, their faithfulness…these are the true power of all those who wish to be genuine disciples of Christ, and it was this power that brought faith in Him down through the ages right to us today. Let’s think about these women today, so that we can imitate them in every way possible.