For those who were his closest followers, all hope seems to be lost as Jesus suffers a horrific death, and is laid in a borrowed tomb. For them there is no fame or fortune, or even that earthly kingdom that they dreamed about. But as in the past, those who hold out hope and the possibility of salvation are those considered to be outsiders - the women. They remain vigilant at the cross, and taking responsibility for the body of Jesus (read 'Body of Christ') they will return to properly prepare the dead body. Everything moved so quickly on Friday.
The notion of remaining faithful even in the midst of chaos and death is both one of holiness and a sign of a mature faith. A brother priest mentioned to me a few weeks ago that the phrase he misses from the "old" prayers, is just after the Our Father we would pray, "We wait in joyful hope the coming of our saviour Jesus Christ." That says so much of what our lives must be about on a day to day basis, but in particular when life seems to unravel.
There is a line from a Monty Python skit in which a group of soldiers beset by a dragon would cry out, "Run away, run away," as they retreated. We can feel tempted to do that when life is awful. Standing faithfully before evil, and confronting evil people, puts evil to shame. I have been looking for stories to use for my homily tomorrow from the series of books, Jesus Freaks. These are folks who stood for justice, peace, truth, and the holiness of God. They refused to be frightened into submission. Some of them brought about change, others awareness of an evil, and others were simply a sign of courage and strength.
So we sit at the tomb waiting for the resurrection. And we do this because of everything we have seen and heard.
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