the young man in white - easter vigil

Tonight, we have come to the last day and the peak of the holy triduum.  Triduum means three days.  It is the feast of the paschal mystery and it takes 3 days to finish, from Holy Thursday to Good Friday to Easter Sunday which we begin tonight with this Vigil. It is the pascha, the crossing over of Jesus as much as it is also our crossing over from our old life to a new life. Tonight, the last day of the triduum we are invited to become the young man in our gospel, dressed in white robe whom the women found in the tomb seated at the right side.

If you have listened to last Sunday’s gospel at the beginning of the Holy Week, also from the gospel of Mark, there was also a young man in the garden of Gethsemane with Jesus.  He was a follower of Jesus, and Mark described him as wearing only a linen cloth.  When the soldiers arrested Jesus in the garden a commotion ensued and the disciples fled for their lives including this young man.  Sa sobra niya nga kakulba this young man did not know that the linen cloth he was wearing ginbutong na gali sang soldado samtang nagdalagan sia and so he ran naked.  It was such a shameful thing – to run away in fear and to run away naked.  Who was that young man?  We do not know.  Nagtuhaw lang sia kag dayon nadula naman.  And then all of a sudden in tonight’s gospel we see again a young man. He was found by the women sitting inside the tomb, specifically on the right side and he is now dressed in white robe. Now who was that young man?  Again we do not know.  

Ambot lang pero I think si Mark nga nagsulat sang gospel basi nagasideline ni sia bilang sastre ukon couturier.  Why?  Because he is particular about clothes, he seems to notice the clothes of people in his gospel.  Some scholars say this is deliberate.  Mark they say is actually sending us a very subtle message by the clothes people wear. Mark mentioned the linen only twice in his gospel – the linen from the young man who ran naked in the garden, and the linen that was used to wrap the dead body of Jesus in the tomb.  Also, Mark mentioned the white robe also twice in his gospel – the shining white robe of the young man in the tomb and the shining white robe of Jesus when he was transfigured.

So who was that young man? Probably it is every Christian, every disciple of Jesus, probably the young man is us.

The linen of fear and shame is the same linen wrapped in the dead body of Jesus.  With this Mark is telling us that Jesus brought that linen of shame and fear with him into the tomb, to be finally buried there. 

Now the white robe of the young man in the tomb is the same white robe of Jesus transfigured.  With this Mark is telling us we are now transfigured, we are now transformed – shame has been buried, fear is taken away and now we are made to sit at the right side.  To be seated at the right side means to be restored.  Like the young man in the gospel we may have been weak, we may have betrayed, we may have run in fear, we are feeble, we have done shameful things in the garden, but now we are robed in glory, we are seated at the right side, we are transfigured, transformed, restored by the grace of God in the empty tomb.

Can we say that of ourselves?  Are we the young man Mark speaks of?

Mark is a unique gospel.  He teaches us what true discipleship is.  He can do that in two ways, he can either present the disciples as examples for us to emulate, or he can instruct us through the failures of the disciples.  Mark chose the second approach – he is instructing us through the failures of Peter, and the failures of this young man.

This then is the message of our gospel today.

First, there is hope for all who failed.  The resurrection of Jesus is telling us the many possibilities of hope in every person.  And there is always hope because there is always a possibility for change lurking in each one’s heart. Hope means that a person who turned his back from the church and from his faith may yet change his mind.  Hope means that our past does not have to define our future. Hope means that our present does not necessarily become our destiny, because hope means the future is open and it is full of surprises and possibilities.  Let us not give up on ourselves.

Second, the young man who failed and was restored told the women to go and tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.”  Now why did he single-out Peter, why did he not just say tell all the disciples. Why single-out Peter?  Because Peter was the other failure and this young man who himself was a failure wants the other failure, Peter, to know that he too has been restored.  Let us not give up on each other.

And so tonight we are ready to make the crossing – On Holy Thursday we allowed Jesus to wash our feet and to wash each other’s feet, to ask forgiveness and to be forgiving.  On Good Friday, we stood beneath the cross like Mary, an invitation to be always with Jesus , to see things not just with our own eyes and understanding but with the eyes and outlook of Jesus; to accept things that happen in our lives not just by ourselves with our own strength but always with Jesus by our side; to choose and decide not solely on our own but always with reference to Jesus – always with Jesus.  And lastly as perennial failures we learn to hope – hope allows us to be open to possibilities in ourselves and in others, hope urges us not to give up on ourselves and in each other.  This hope is made possible by the resurrection of Jesus.

Now we can make the crossing, we will now renew our baptismal promises.  First we bless the water.