In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Christ is risen!
It is hard to stand for the Gospel—I am afraid of ridicule and belittlement. I want to stand for Truth; I however, like the remaining members of the Twelve, run away and hide for fear of being identified with the Nazarene. Yet the Lord finds courage in surprising places.
Joseph and the Myrrh-bearers were from opposite ends of the Judean spectrum: he was a rich and influential member of the Council, they were women from Galilee who accompanied a wandering preacher. Yet they were all willing to put themselves forward for action when others would not. Joseph’s secrecy in following Christ could not be maintained once it was known he had begged for the Body; “And he bought a linen shroud,” the evangelist tells us, “and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud, and laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.” The Myrrh-bearers, too, honoured the Body by preparing spices to anoint Christ and, without hesitation, set off for the tomb before the dawn.
And you and I can do the same. We, like the Twelve, may lack the strength to go out and preach the Gospel but we can honour appropriately the Body of Christ. We are offered his Body freely through the Word and through Communion, but like Joseph we must hew out the rock within our hearts—the rock of sin, the rock of ego, the rock of pride, the rock of self-centredness—to make a worthy place for him. And like the women, we must prepare and bring to him appropriate offerings. And in doing this, in bringing our broken selves to the Lord in humility and in love, we too will be found worthy of Pentecost, and we “shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon [us]; and [we] shall be witnesses [to Christ] in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to stand for Truth, to stand for the Gospel, is a daunting task, an overwhelming task, a task which we cannot achieve by our own powers. But Christ does not ask this of us. He asks that we honour and receive him. But in receiving him, in honouring him, in opening ourselves to him, he makes us his Body and able to do his work. A hand, by itself, can do nothing—but a hand animated and vivified by the Body may achieve much; let us, too, be animated and vivified by the Holy Spirit through receiving the Word, receiving Christ.
Let us, therefore, prepare our offerings and hew out our hearts, let us honour our Lord and receive him more perfectly, let us run out and greet him at all times and in all places.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
To our crucified and risen Saviour, who grants that we may receive him, be all glory, honour and might, together with his Unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
In those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists murmured against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the body of the disciples and said, “it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” And what they said pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochoros, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaos, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands upon them. And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.
— Acts 6:1–7
At that time, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. And Pilate wondered if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the body to Joseph. And he bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud, and laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid. And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back; for it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, “Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.” And they went out and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
— Mark 15:43–47, 16:1–8