Why do you look for the living among the dead?

Why do you look for the living among the dead? What a phrase??!! What power??? What force??? What truth!!!!!!! Kids know this innately.. And somewhere along the way we lose this power!!!! Honestly.. I must recite this several times a year in regard to daily situations that may come across my daily fare!! Are you living? Truly?? Are you among those who embrace each day as the day of all days??? Do you see life as a new lease on life? Do you understand that each day we awaken we have the power to transform our way of being and living? We can be new again tomorrow? Or are you someone that views the world cynically, critically, and harshly… and thinks each day is spelled out and mundane? No one, or no event changes?? And nothing can alter that??? I am always the correct one?! Need to be right?? I can or can’t make the difference in someone else’s life?? I am too good for them.. Them for me..Etc??? Life is what it is….sadly, many of us do. This, my friends, is in fact the Easter epistle. This is why every Sunday is Easter. This is why we should never take for granted people, places and things in our lives that bring us to understanding how to live a better way... a newer way… or simply a more accepting and loving way. This is why we proclaim after Easter, and every Sunday after Mass is concluded... “Alleluia, The Lord is Risen let us go out in peace to love and serve our Lord”. The Easter message. Life is fragile. Life is evolutionary. Life is for understanding those and ourselves when we are confused lonely and lost. Life is about getting back on that untamed, never ridden before donkey and taming him. It is about being a sacrifice to others as Christ was in his servitude to the disciples at the Last Supper; it is about ultimately sacrificing ourselves for the people we love the most. Still never comparing us to Jesus on Jesus’ last day. But rather only needing to give up little to love and treat another the way I would like to be treated. (Our Preschool mantra we shout out each day after the Pledge of Allegiance.) I give you a new commandment. “Love one another, as I have loved you.” That is living among the dead. Truly. Christ was killed, placed in a tomb and not expected to be seen again. A very confused Mary Magdalene, never giving up on her devotion and beliefs went, the minute she could to the tomb. Do you understand how inspiring that is? Women are rarely valued in ancient Isreal..except however in the Easter story. Jewish women weren’t allowed into Holy buildings usually. And if they were permitted, were to do so fully covered. They didn’t make choices. Vote, work, or the like. They didn’t decide on futures. They’d didn’t work, and they didn’t know what would become of them if their husbands should pass away. But in the story of Christ’s Passion, the women play a major role! Do you understand how important it is for Jesus to be seen by Magdalene for the 1 st time after his resurrection? And why on earth it would be placed into print in our Bibles???? Surely, if this were something to hide or deny you wouldn’t mention. Many of the Gospels have been “unacceptable” to religious scholars. So why the women as witness? That is modern view for such ancient times. An anxious and a disturbed Mary Magdalene approached the tomb that sunny Easter Day. In my head, I have her nervously running down a path to see her Jesus. (Dead mind you))…. Laid on slab covered with a linen sheet. She is ready to spend time with him, alone, or not, anointing his body. She is prepared to spend time with a dead being. Lifeless and perhaps without peace. (Perhaps). She is hoping all her good works and love will create the peace that SHE needs to be happy in this moment. Because in the end, we all as humans only seek out the peace we need to make ourselves content and safe. The dead have gone on to other places. What Mary finds though is her master gone. Her life and hope “stolen” if you will. She turns to a man whom she believes a common gardner. “Do you know where they have taken him?” She is lost. She feels He is lost too. She needs to know where she should be. That’s hard place to be living in the middle of an empty, cold tomb and searching for the life blood that (even in death) that makes you feel whole. She is only answered by the words. “Why do you look for the living among the dead?’ That surely is her message. But her Jesus comes back for her.. and to many others to show them that there is life beyond the confines of living in death. And that anything is possible with God... even coming back to life. AND YET WE CAN DO THAT ANYTIME! Death is never a way out. Some think it is. It’s an easy way to not deal or cope. But death isn’t real. If we truly believe in the Christian message then we know that death is only in the flesh. Not who we are! Mary didn’t get this yet. She didn’t understand that we don’t live thru death. Or some kind of life results from death! And certainly Jesus did not either. Death is merely a moment we move thru dimensions much like those on Star trek lived. “Beam me up Scotty”. Death is a movement not a solution. The ending should always be a new way of living… it should be about healing, forgiveness, and love. And I can tell you this… It should never be the last ditch attempt to solving a problem! Like in Corinthians 13… Love lasts forever. Love is eternal and never gives up. It is never fearful. It never boasts holds deceit or hatred and never sits in own junk. It is forever. And that is that. Let this Easter knock the fear out of you. I’m telling you! Cause Easter is not about shoving crap in a tomb and closing it off with a big huge rock… while also being guarded by 2 Romans. It is about letting the rock… roll. Letting the spirit run free. And allowing the life force to rise up among us and heal even our scariest wounds. That BTW can be touched in the end! SO there Thomas! We live though our wounds! But more importantly.. as Jesus says.. Blessed are those who never touch them and still believe! That’s all of us! Miss Dawn