“Be it unto me according to thy word”
Mary’s word opens us out, quite literally, to the words of the Incarnate Christ, “the word made flesh,” but most especially and, perhaps, most tellingly to the words of the Risen Christ. It is not too much to say that the words of the Risen Christ inaugurate the most dramatic change in human outlook and understanding that there has ever been. The effect of the presence and words of the Risen Christ on the disciples leads to the intense recollection of all the details of the Passion of Christ and, by extension, to the accounts as well of all the other words and deeds of Christ including his nativity that comprise the Gospels and, then, the other writings that make up the New Testament.
In other words, there is something dramatic and compelling about the Resurrection. Death and Resurrection are two of the foundational themes and principles of Christianity, though not entirely unique to Christianity. There is, in late Judaism, the idea of the resurrection and resurrection, too, is a feature of the Islamic religion. But for Christians the focus is on Christ, on his death and resurrection. And Christ is the primary teacher of the Resurrection.
What is that teaching? That we are more though not less than our bodies, which is probably good news for some of us. That we are not the “slave[s] to fate, chance, kings and desperate men,” as John Donne puts it, the mere pathetic victims of the fatalistic determinisms of our social, economic, political and therapeutic culture. No. We are freed to God in whom we find the very truth of our being and life, the God in whom we become who we are truly called to be and in whom we are more and not less than ourselves.
This is, I think, pretty amazing and quite profound. It is the case historically and theologically that the Resurrection effected the greatest sea-change in human culture imaginable. It quite literally changed the world. And it changed the world because it changes our outlook. It changes our minds and it changes our thinking.
The Resurrection accounts are fascinating. They show us how an idea comes to birth and life in our minds and lives. There is a change, a life-altering change, and the change is in us in how we look at ourselves and one another. And all because something has changed between God and man.
Today’s Gospel shows us something of the dynamic of that change. It reminds us of the absolute centrality of Christ on the Cross, and, more specifically, of the distinctive Christian teaching about the forgiveness of sins. What was transacted on the Cross for us and for our salvation is the forgiveness of sins, the reconciliation between God and man in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In the Resurrection, that forgiveness now becomes the living reality of our life in Christ, in his body, the Church.
Christ appears to the disciples on the evening of Easter day. They are huddled behind closed doors. They are there in utter fear and confusion. All their hopes and expectations have been crushed, literally, crucified. Christ appears mysteriously, magically, mystically, and yet, in every way, really and he speaks. His word is the word of peace. Peace is proclaimed in the place of fear and doubt and despair. This is the peace that “passeth understanding,” as our liturgy reminds us. It is beyond human knowing, that is to say, it is not a human invention. This is the divine peace which belongs to the heavenly triumph over human sin and enmity. The divine peace arises from the reconciling love of God for our humanity accomplished through Christ’s death and resurrection. It is proclaimed in the midst of our fears and anxieties, our darkness and despair wherever we are.
That is not all. No. There is another word. It is the word of forgiveness which is absolutely crucial to Christian faith and life. Christ’s forgiveness is now our life. The forgiveness of sins is delegated by the Risen Christ to the disciples. It becomes the living reality of the Church.
It is here in our liturgy. We take it for granted, I fear, and miss the astounding truth that it conveys. In every service, there is death and resurrection through confession and absolution. It means the hope of change, of transformation in my heart and your heart, and in our lives with one another. Forgiveness is about the possibilities of change, of reconciliation, of being more and becoming more truly ourselves in the love of Christ. It opens us out to the words which can change us, if we will let them, from selfishness to helpfulness, from meanness to kindness, from vice to virtue, and so on and so on. All changes for the better. That is the hope and the reality of the Resurrection. It happens through the encounter with the words of Christ, the words of the Risen Christ who proclaims peace and forgiveness. May it be unto us according to his word!
“Be it unto me according to thy word”
Fr. David Curry
Octave Day of Easter, 2012