mo. cristina, ra, RIP

Why is the gospel about the resurrection read today when we are just on the third day of Christmas?  Why is the gospel narrating to us a tomb made empty by the resurrection read when we are still celebrating his birth in a manger?

The most obvious reason is this:  today is the feast of St. John, the beloved disciple who as narrated in our gospel today was the first to reach the empty tomb.  It is to his name that the 4^th Gospel is credited which begins with this famous prologue read on Christmas day - in the beginning was the word, and the word was in God and the word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; and we saw his glory, glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 

This as I said is the most obvious reason.  The writer of this beautiful prologue describing the birth of the son of God is also a witness, in fact the first witness, to his rising from the dead.

And so the deeper reason follows the first reason which is - the death and resurrection of the Lord are presupposed in his incarnation.  As a small cute little baby, he is the object of our adoration and veneration as he lay there so still in the manger.  But we also should know that this object of our veneration is vulnerable, he is human as well as he is God, and he too will suffer and die, he will feel loneliness, he will experience how it is to be betrayed but he will also experience the warmth, the tenderness and perhaps the imperfection too of human love.  Today our picture of Jesus is completed: there can be no resurrection without the incarnation, there can be no rising from the dead without the word becoming flesh and human.  In Jesus we cannot separate the joy of the manger, the sacrifice of cross and the hope in an empty tomb. 

Today as we gather, these thoughts are even made more tangible by one whose presence in our lives, and now even just in our memories, created and continues to create joy and gratitude; our thoughts are even made tangible by one whose humble sacrifice as a religious added meaning and perhaps direction as we all went beyond Assumption; and our thoughts are even made tangible by one who is now laid in the tomb but whose memory gathers us even today in silent defiance to that love and admiration that will never say die.

When I made this homily I had a hard time remembering anything that would connect me to Mother Cristina.  Well there were several encounters, mostly recent.  One when we were preparing the launching of the centennial and we need people who will ring the centennial bell which would include an alumna, two students, a boy and a girl, and an assumption sister.  We chose her because she was the oldest in the community who can still ring a bell.  Our line of thinking then was that she was in a better age to represent a centennial.  Imagine that, though we did not tell her, which was the reason I believe why she was beaming with joy happily ringing the bells.  The other memory is quiet embarrassing, this time when I had to take a second look at her face thinking that she was wearing lipstick.  Mother Cristina is a gentle woman, taking things slowly, kindly, patiently. 

Our teachers are dying - Sr. Julita, Mr. Clemente Eclar, Sr., Mo. Cristina. It means that we are getting older.  Dying in succession is also a gift.  Teachers die first, then the students.  It is better that in death we will be remembered by our students rather than our teachers.  Teachers are not to be trusted to say the right things about their students when we die – they might even reveal our grades.  So it’s good to die in succession.  Do not overtake, stay in line, so stay healthy.

This is one of the rewards of a woman religious – one who has set aside family and loved ones for the greater family which is, in the case of Mo. Cristina, the larger Family of Assumption; the reward of being remembered by people not because you gave them your genes, your blood, your family name or an inheritance, but because you gave them ideals, principles, lessons in patience and gentleness, virtues that formed their character and person, things that do not rot or rust, things that they bring through their lives.

This December Mother Cristina like Jesus has completed the way of one who is of human flesh, secundum carnem: she was born, she had sacrificed her life for others, she is laid in a tomb.  What awaits is the day when just like that of Jesus, the tomb becomes empty.