Too Much To Wait
Holy Saturday At the Easter Vigil in the Holy Night of Easter
Matthew 28:1-10
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040426.cfm
When the angel speaks to the women, the angel starts with the usual phrasing of “Do not be afraid.” The angel shares the news about Jesus’s resurrection. He refers to them looking for the crucified Jesus, but Jesus is not just crucified now but resurrected. The angel gives them directions to let the disciples know that Jesus will meet them in Galilee, the place where he spent almost all of his time in ministry in this gospel. Galilee was important because it was a region that was a melting pot of Jews and Gentiles. Jesus was bringing God beyond the walls of the Jewish faithful, but still rooted in it. The ministry that the disciples will carry is both within Israel and beyond it.
While the angel gave women notice, and the women were headed to share the news, Jesus encountered them. It wasn’t enough for just the angel to share the news with them, but Jesus did as well. I like to imagine this as Jesus breaking protocol. Jesus was to meet everyone together in Galilee, but he couldn’t help himself. He wanted to reunite with his friends so he met them when they were on their way. He was eager to be back with them. Like the father in the parable of the prodigal son or the bridegroom seeking wedding attendees. Jesus wanted reconnection after what he went through; a journey back to his friends and loved ones.
God finds a way to us in our liminal spaces. While we may know and anticipate an encounter with God at mass, prayer, scripture reading, or other forms of daily devotion, God finds us when we are on our way. God seeks and desires the encounter with us. Not just when we start on the journey or when we reach our destination but throughout the space in between.
Even after the resurrection, Jesus couldn’t wait. Jesus had to visit with the women who checked up on him. Jesus is reaching out to us too. Not once we’ve accomplished something, not once we’ve helped our neighbors, not once we’ve said the right prayer or participated in sacraments, God is wanting to encounter us now when we are enroute to such things. While God is the Alpha and Omega, God is also the here and now. God wants to be with us at this moment. God’s not waiting for us to get it just right or to have the exact right and perfect belief system. God encounters us now, on the bad days and the good; when we fail, when we succeed, and everything in between.
As with the women in today’s gospel, God loves you too much to wait so let’s not feel the need to wait either but welcome God in the here and now.
