So the last reflection on each session will be an attempt to engage the senses in imagining what each Scripture passage might have been like for the participants. I believe in addition to the actual senses, I may also engage what I think the principals might be feeling and thinking, to the degree that I have not done so in previous sessions.
So again, Mk 16:1-11
(2) Very early, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. The days were around the same length as now, near the equinox, so the sun is low in the sky to the east. Even though it may grow quite warm later in the day, the morning air is likely cool, and perhaps there is dew on the ground. The air would likely smell fresh this early in the morning, and perhaps there would be the chirping of birds busy with their morning activity. We are dejected, and speaking despondently from our heavy hearts to one another (3) we expect that we are on a fool's errand, that we will not be likely to actually reach our beloved Teacher's broken body to anoint it because of the heavy stone that was placed before the entrance to the tomb. We can scarcely believe that he ended like this; he was such a bright hope for us. (4) We are shocked to see that the stone no longer blocks the entrance to the tomb, which surprises us. Who might have come here before us? Surely no one would have undertaken the labor of moving the stone on the sabbath? But we are at first relieved to have this obstacle removed from our path, so that we can be about our sorrowful errand of love. Oh, how we loved him. Tears continue to come and go, and nearly obscure our vision. We are dealing with congestion, too, in our sinuses, because of our tears. (5) So as we enter the tomb we do not notice, at first, that the smell of death that we expected to encounter is not absent, and through our bleary eyes it is hard to make out the white-robed figure to the right of where we expected to find our beloved Master. What is this? Where is he? What have you done with him?
(6-7) We hear words that make no sense at all. (This makes no more sense than when my mother told me, at age 14, that my dad was suddenly and gravely taken ill and we had to return home rather than complete our vacation as planned. This is not the same sort of news, but it has no more feeling of reality. If seems unreal.) His voice is calm, and he is trying to reassure us, but still my heart is filled with fear from the unprecedented unfamiliarity of these words. We knew what was supposed to happen, and to experience this instead seems as if we have been robbed of him again! We cannot even care for his body as we have come to do! We are confounded, afraid, and angry! How can we go share this impossible tale with the disciples? (8) We run out from the tomb; this strangers words bring us nothing but confusion and anxiety; they are certainly nothing we can hope in, for they are too foreign. Leaving the tomb, Mary and Salome leave me behind as I try to process what we have heard.
(9) Then my beloved appears before me. Oh, how is this possible? Dear One, beloved Lord! It is you! How is it that you are alive? I had lost you, forever, I was sure! Oh, how I long to remain with you! (10) But as you command, Lord, I go and tell your disciples of your rising. I rush out of the garden, along the dirt roads, pass through the gate and soon begin covering the stony streets of the city. I quickly reach the house in which they are gathered, filled with the same grief and sorrow which consumed me such a brief time ago. (11) I am a simple person, and I tell what I have seen, but my words have no power to break through their sadness. I myself didn't believe until my beloved Jesus appeared to me himself. Peter was the most despondent of all. I am so disappointed for them, but I cannot make them believe what I have seen.
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