Ever notice how a bright light, a spotlight, almost never fails to spark something the soul?
That’s true even if the light in question is nothing more than dusk-to-dawn pole-lamp illuminating a stretch of the Brazos riverbanks outside Waco.
In the heart of Grandson #2, this bright light instantly transformed turf into stage – turning the backyard of the country retreat where we spent Spring Break into spontaneous performance space.
“Light” invited “dance,” and we who witnessed it were enchanted.
I wonder if it was a bit like that for Mary Magdalene and the other Mary … when they approached the tomb just as day dawned on the first Easter morning. Matthew tells us how bright light soon marked the scene:
And behold, there was a great earthquake;
for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven,
approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.
His appearance was like lightning
and his clothing was white as snow.
This light changed them. Roused from their grief, freed from their stupor, the women immediately went into motion: “…they went away quickly from [Jesus’ empty] tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples.”
Grieving women … thus became the world’s first witnesses to the Resurrection. Light revealed Truth in them, and gave them a Word to speak – an astonishing (almost unbelievable) Word, one that could offer comfort and salvation to a weary world.
Surely, Easter’s Great Light should have no less effect on us today. It should set our feet to dancing, our lips to singing: Easter invites us to become witnesses, too. “When Christ your life appears,” St. Paul says in the reading proclaimed on Easter morning, “then you too will appear with him in glory.”
See, then, how the Risen Lord beckons us into the spotlight, though we may consider ourselves inadequate to the task. See indeed – on this glorious Easter morning – how Christ, our Great Light, invites us all to dance!
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 