4th march 2002
GOD IS NOT BEHIND
On this Sunday morning, earlier than sunrise, Mary of Magdala is already up, alreay on her way, outside. She doesn’t know that Sunday is the first day of the week. She doesn’t know that it is the day of beginnings. For her, this day is not the first, but the last. She got up early, not to seek hope, but to finish a burial. On last Friday, Jesus died, crucified, executed, assesinated leagally. Friday night is the beginning of sabbath, and there was just enough time to take Jesus off the cross and lay him down in a hurry in the tomb lent by Joseph of Arimathie, which was fortunately very close to Golgotha. Everything is in order. Jesus had died but at least the law of sabbath had been respected.
On this Sunday morning the sun will rise soon and the sabbath will be leagally ended.
Mary of Magdala has only one thought in mind : finish as soon as possible the burial rituals
that couldn’t take place on Friday due to the sabbath. Mary of Magdala goes out enveloped in her coat hiding the jars of ointments, perfumes and spices with wich she will embalm the corpse of Jesus.
On that morning, at dawn, Mary Magdalain’s heart is grieving. All her thoughts are fixed on the burial. Her visions are those of death. When she arrives to the tomb and discovers that its stone has been removed and that it is empty, she immediately suspects that the tomb has been robbed and the corpse taken away. All her anxiety is now concentrated on trying to find the corpse of Jesus. The idea that Jesus might be alive doesn’t even surface in her mind.
She is not looking for Jesus, she is looking for his corpse. She asks everyone she meets after the corpse. She claims it from the Angels that she finds at the tomb. She claims it from the person she supposes to be a gardener, but who is Jesus in person, but she is so obsessed with finding the corpse, that when she finds herself face to face to Jesus, resurrected and very much alive, she is not able to identify him.
Perhaphs this is also the problem of Christians to-day. They are so obsessed with trying to
find the Church that they knew, that they do not recognize the Church that is emerging.
They are so wrapped up in their own principles and their habits, that they prefer to
remember Jesus, rather than being attentive to how Jesus manifests himself in the history
of mankind to-day.
I
CCG is an extraordinary opportunity for Christian faith, because guiding
is alive amongst children, teenagers and the young. Leaders are called to be
through their experience, witnesses of faith, tools of faith, expression of
faith, but it is children, teenagers and the young that carry in their dreams,
projects, expectations and hopes the future shape of the Church, a Church
that is emerging, a Church that comes towards us and appears before us.
The future Church is already here, very near us. Mary Magdalaine only felt responsibility
towards the memory of Jesus. As Jesus called her by her name, Jesus entrusted her with
the future : " Go and tell my brothers… ". When you call guides and leaders by their name,
let this call be one that opens up to the future and not one that leads them back, a nostalgic call that locks them up in the past. It is Easter ! It is the dawn of the first day ! It is a beginning ! Easter calls us by our name. This call that opend Mary Magdalaine’s eyes is the same that opens your sight now.
Look, look carefully, pay attention. Listen with your eyes. Look at the eyes of the children,
of guides, of rangers, of leaders, look carefully and you’ll see the Church of tomorrow .
If you feel overwhelmed, it means that you are on the right path. God is not behind us,
he is in front of us. God is not in the tomb, he is outside ! He is not with death anymore,
he is ressurected. The guides lead the way for you.
Jean DEBRUYNNE
ICCG World Chaplain
If you wish to read other texts or poems by Jean Debruynne, contact the website of the association
" En blanc dans le texte " : www.en-blanc-dans-le texte.asso.fr
www.en-blanc-dans-le-texte.asso.fr
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