Today, on the Sunday of the Holy Myrrhbearers, we hear Saint Mark’s account of how the holy women had gone to the tomb of Christ to anoint His body, only to be met by an angel with the news that He was Risen.
We have been hearing and celebrating the news of Christ’s Resurrection for the past two weeks, and we know that the Resurrection is at the centre of our faith. Yet it must have been rather a shock for these women, who were already traumatized by the Crucifixion, to be met with the news that Christ’s body was no longer in the tomb. They can hardly be blamed for being frightened and it is not surprising that it took a while for them to grasp what had happened.
We are used to celebrating the Resurrection of Christ at Pascha, yet this Gospel may help to remind us of the newness of the Resurrection. In the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, we see the power of God breaking into our world in a quite dramatic way. This can be rather unsettling, for it turns our normal expectations on their head. Like the holy women at the tomb, we may not know what to expect when we allow God into our lives.
Yet the angel tells the women not to be afraid for Christ is Risen. He has not left them, but has rather gone ahead of them to Galilee, and they are given the task to tell the apostles of His Resurrection. In the same way, Jesus Christ goes ahead of us. He breaks through our closed doors in order to call us follow Him in His Risen Life. This can be unsettling because it leads us into the unknown. Yet we know that He goes before us and will always lead us and guide us.