ABBOT ELIAS DIETZ, O.C.S.O
Homily – Easter Day Mass – April 1, 2018
The Stone Rolled Away
The Sequence we heard just before the gospel—far from being a quaint oddity—is actually one of the treasures of the liturgy. The church has been singing this little poem for nearly a thousand years. Part of it—the lively little dialogue with Mary Magdalene—has a popular character about it, and, in fact, is part of what inspired medieval dramas based on the liturgy. We hear Mary condense into a few lines the whole story of Easter morning: “The tomb of Christ, who is living, the glory of Jesus’ resurrection; the angels there attesting, shroud and folded napkin resting.”
The rest of the poem is quite different. It talks about the Paschal Victim, and takes us into the atmosphere of the Book of Revelation: “A lamb the sheep redeeming, sinless in the sinner’s stead, reconciling sinners to the Father. Death and life have contended in that strange and awesome strife: the Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal.”
Here we have side-by-side the two aspects of Easter: a moment in time when the body of Jesus of Nazareth is found missing;and the eternal exaltation of the resurrected Lord; a death and loss as hard as the stone, and the eternal brightness emerging from the empty tomb.
In a way, the stone moved aside is the open door in heaven that led John to see the great revelation. And at the heart of that revelation is the “Lamb, standing as though it had been slain,” or as our Sequence has it, “A lamb the sheep redeeming.” And the poem also sums up well the main message of John’s book about that revelation: “Death and life have contended in that strange and awesome strife: the Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal.”
The lamb of the Passover supper, the Supper at which Jesus offered his own body and blood as the true sacrifice, and the victorious Lord presiding for all eternity over the hosts of heaven—all come together in this one, extraordinary figure of the Lamb of God. And we are meant to become members of the multitude that will be presented as the chosen Bride of this mysterious Lamb.
If we allow it to, the Easter Season has in store for each of us a stone rolled away and an open door in heaven. As with Peter and John, we cannot fully grasp what it being offered to us. But with Mary we can keep coming back to it.
Each day at Mass, just before communion, the priest lifts up the consecrated host and says, “Blessed are those called to the Supper of the Lamb.” These are the words of the angel to John in the Book of Revelation. And the angel immediately went on to say, “These are the true words of God.”
Indeed, what more need be said. Our happiness is in this Lamb. Our whole life is an invitation to that Supper.
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