Fr.
Tony’s Midweek Message
March
27, 2013
“In
remembrance of her”
April
D. DeConick, Professor of Biblical Studies at Rice University, in today’s Huffington Post ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/april-d-deconick/
) reminds us that all the New Testament stories we are about to read about the
passion and resurrection of Jesus are told from the perspective of Jesus’ male
disciples. The role and perspectives of
women in those stories have been minimized, and the women are seen as marginal
participants in the events. The problem
is summed up in the story about a woman anointing Jesus at a meal shortly
before his death. Though in the story
itself Jesus says that “wherever the Gospel is preached, this story will be
told in memory of her” (Mark 14:9; Matt. 26:13), the woman’s name has been
lost, and she is not named in the story.
As
DeConick writes,
“The Gospels agree that at the most
difficult moment in the Christian story, when Jesus hung on the cross exposed
and suffering, a throng of his women followers remained with him at Golgotha
and watched him die. Then they helped Joseph of Arimathea take down his body
and lay it in the tomb before dusk fell.
“If we are to believe the author of the
Gospel of Mark, his male followers deserted him. And we know from multiple
sources that Peter betrayed ever knowing him. But the women remained steadfast
and faithful.
“What do we know about these devoted
and courageous women? Some of the Gospels record their names, but not much else
about them, like Mary the mother of James and Joseph, the mother of the sons of
Zebedee, Joanna and Salome. The Gospels agree that, at the cross, there was a
collection of women who had followed him, some who had followed him all the way
from Galilee.”
Importantly,
the first witnesses to the resurrection were all women. And the male disciples would not believe
their report, thinking it was “simply idle women’s talk” (Luke 24:11; cf. Luke
24:22, “and now some of our own women, frankly, have amazed us with their
tale”).
DeConick
concludes her article with a great suggestion:
“This Easter, let's remember the women
in the life of Jesus, let's reimagine their faith as they stood and watched
Jesus die. I invite you to set aside an hour to remember them on Holy Saturday,
the most solemn day in the Christian calendar when the altars of churches are
stripped and mass is performed only for the dying. I think that it is
appropriate for the silenced stories of the biblical women to fill this vacancy
on Holy Saturday, that it might become a traditional time for Christians
everywhere to remember the women as the followers of Jesus who remained
steadfast and faithful as Jesus died and was buried.”
DeConick’s
suggestion is a good one, and makes liturgical sense: Holy Saturday is traditionally the biggest
day of the year for Altar Guilds, who must take the stripped altars and prepare
them fully for the glories of Easter. And
Altar Guilds are predominantly made up of women believers.
On
Holy Saturday at 11:00 a.m., we will have our Parish “Plant-In” finally to
create the garden between the Church and the Parish Hall originally planned
when the Trinity Labyrinth and Garden were built.
In
the afternoon, as we rest between the morning preparations for Easter
(including the “Plant-in” and the Altar Guild’s work) and the Great Vigil of
Easter that will begin at 8 p.m., let us take an hour to remember the women in
these stories, and to use our imaginations and hearts to envision what these
events must have been like for them, who were, after all, the apostles who
first took the message of the Risen Lord to the (male and to-that-point Christ-abandoning)
apostles.
Grace
and Peace,
Fr. Tony+
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