3 April 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3
On the last day of Easter week the Church goes back once more to the tomb, this time with Mark. “When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.” They are going to do the last thing love can do for the dead. On the way they have one worry: “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” It is a real problem; Mark tells us the stone “was very large”. But “When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.” How much of our life is spent walking towards a stone that God has already moved. We lie awake over a conversation we fear, a sin we cannot confess, a reconciliation we think impossible, and when we finally arrive, the stone is gone. Inside the tomb a young man in a white robe gives the Easter announcement: “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.” The angel points to an empty place. The Church has never preached a Resurrection of the spirit only, or a Christ who lives on merely in the memory of his friends. The body that was laid there is gone because it has been raised, the same body that bore the nails, now glorified. The Gospels do not tell us that the Risen Lord appeared first to his Mother, but an old and loving tradition of the Church, among Eastern and Western writers alike, has believed that he did, and that Mary, who kept faith through the long Saturday, was the first to be filled with the joy of her Son's Resurrection.
Then the commission: “But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” Two words have consoled sinners for twenty centuries: and Peter. Peter, who had sworn he did not know the man; Peter, who had wept in the courtyard. He is named on purpose, so that he will not think he has been struck off the list. The Risen Lord does not send a message to the faithful disciples and leave out the one who failed. And he sends them back to Galilee, where it all began, by the lake where he first called them. He is “going ahead of you”: wherever we go, he is there first. Mark's Gospel then ends in a strange way: “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” The oldest manuscripts of Mark stop here; the Church receives the longer ending (Mark 16:9–20) as inspired Scripture, and it tells of the appearances that followed. But the silence of verse 8 is itself a message. The news was too great for them at first; fear held them. Yet we know the end of the story: the women did speak, the disciples did see him in Galilee, and the news has reached Kerala and every continent. Fear was not the last word. Every Christian who hears the Easter Gospel is asked to finish the sentence the women left unfinished, by telling someone.
Paul tells the newly baptised what to do with the Easter news in daily life. “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” This is not an escape from the world; Paul goes on in the same chapter to speak of family life, work and forgiveness. It is a question of where the heart is fixed. Every Holy Qurbana, before the great prayer of the anaphora, the priest calls us to lift up our minds on high, and we answer that they are turned towards the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel. Then the deepest line: “for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.” Tomorrow, on New Sunday, the newly baptised of the ancient Church laid aside the white garments they had worn all week. The white robe was put away, but the new life was not; it went on, hidden, like a seed under the soil, like a treasure in a locked box, like the life of the Lord himself for thirty years at Nazareth. Most of the holiness in the world is hidden: a mother's prayers for a son abroad, a nurse's patience on a night shift, an old man's rosary in an empty church. None of it is lost. It is hidden with Christ in God, and on the last day it will be revealed with him in glory.
Theme: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
The stone already rolled away, the empty place, the message to Peter, and the hidden life of the baptised.
“Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” Psalm 30:5
“When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.” Mark 16:4
Apply: Take one step towards the conversation or confession you have been dreading.
“Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of your possession? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in showing clemency.” Micah 7:18
“But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” Mark 16:7
Apply: Read Mark 16:7 with your own name after ‘and’, and believe it.
“My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:2
“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:1
Apply: Begin each morning this week by lifting your mind to God before anything else.
“For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will set me high on a rock.” Psalm 27:5
“for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.” Colossians 3:3–4
Apply: Thank one person whose hidden faithfulness holds your family or parish together.
The stone is rolled away, the tomb is empty, and the Lord calls back even those who failed him.
Our new life is hidden with him now, and will be revealed with him in glory.
Take-home resolution: This week, walk towards one stone you fear, pray the ‘Queen of Heaven’ each day, and lift your mind to God before you open your phone each morning.
Dear friends, three women walk to the tomb at sunrise with spices and one worry: “Who will roll away the stone for us?” It was a real worry; the stone was very large. But when they looked up, it had already been rolled back.
How often we are like them. We worry for weeks about a conversation, a confession, a reconciliation, and when we finally go, God has already gone ahead and moved the stone. Easter teaches us to walk towards the stone.
The angel says: “He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.” The tomb is empty because the Lord is risen in his body. He is not a memory. He is alive, and we meet him at this altar.
Then: “go, tell his disciples and Peter.” Why Peter? Because Peter had denied him. The Lord did not want Peter to think he was finished. If you have failed, put your own name there: tell the disciples, and tell me.
Paul adds: “seek the things that are above… for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” The newly baptised will take off their white garments, but their new life goes on, hidden. So does ours: in quiet prayers, faithful work, patient love. None of it is lost; it will be revealed with him in glory.
Tomorrow is New Sunday, the Sunday of Mar Thoma. Today let us take one step towards our stone, and lift up our minds to the Lord. Christ is risen! Alleluia! Amen.
Children, the women were worried: ‘Who will move the big stone?’ But God had already moved it, and Jesus was risen!
When you are worried, tell Jesus. He is already there to help you.
Lord Jesus Christ, you rolled away the stone that we feared, and you left the tomb empty because you are risen in the body. You sent word to your disciples and to Peter, so that no one who has failed would think himself forgotten. Raise our minds to the things that are above, where you are seated at the right hand of the Father. Keep our life hidden with you in God, and when you appear, let us appear with you in glory. Through the prayers of your holy Mother, who kept faith through the long Saturday, fill us with Easter joy. Glory to you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen. Alleluia!