Small Gestures of Love

"After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake . . ."

              Matthew 28:1-2

Beloved in Christ, 

Many years ago, after a devastating loss in my life, I walked out my front door to find a friend had left a simple package with a short note on the door handle. It did not take away the shock or the sadness, of course, but the unexpected kindness shocked me in its own way, and helped ease the weight of the grief I was given to carry, even if in the smallest way. My friend made an immeasurable impact by minding the smallest gesture of love. 

On the Day of Easter, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary found something similar. After the devastating catastrophe of Good Friday, when everything they had put their hopes on seemed to have been crushed, they were minding the smallest gesture of love, keeping the ordinary rituals of grief as they went to Jesus' tomb. It's in keeping those small and ordinary steps that they are confronted by the literally awe-ful joy of the resurrection. They are not trying to avoid the pain, deny the devastation, or heroically reverse reality. They are going toward the pain, simply and soberly, minding the smallest gesture of love.

That, my friends, is how we are called to live in the light of Easter. No matter how grand and joyful our celebrations are this weekend, there is no escaping the fact that we live in a world that is still marked by death, oppression, injustice, and suffering in every imaginable way and on every imaginable level. Life this side of God's perfect reign of love means Good Friday and Easter Sunday always come as one tangled bundle. We are always seeing signs of new life and the cold reality of death, acts of unimaginable love and horrendous evils. 

Like the Easter Marys, our joy is not found by denying the pain. Easter isn't anesthesia. Rather, when we have the courage to move toward the places of pain, suffering, injustice, oppression, and violence by minding the smallest gestures of love, that's when we will know the earth-shaking power, not of our efforts, but of God's love, and God's power. 

Jesus tells the Marys, the first apostles, to tell his disciples to go to Galilee. Galilee, the forgotten backwater, the place and people who were exploited and mistreated, disregarded, and forgotten—poor, destitute, unimportant Galilee. There, and there alone, is where they will see him. 

As you look at the world, as you consider your own life, do not be afraid. Do not despair. Do not retreat. But go to Galilee, go to all the places where the world is crushed and aching, go to the places that are small and forgotten, go to where the pain is. There you and I and all the whole world together will see him.  

Grace and peace,

The Right Reverend Craig Loya
X Bishop