Mk 16:1-7
When the Sabbath was over, Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint the body. And very early in the morning on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they came to the tomb.
They were saying to one another, “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” But as they looked up, they noticed that the stone had already been rolled away. It was a very big stone.
As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man in a white robe seated on the right, and they were amazed. But he said to them, “Don’t be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified; he has been raised and is not here. This is, however, the place where they laid him. Now go and tell his disciples and Peter: Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see him there just as he told you.”
REFLECTION
Sisyphus symbolizes a fruitless and meaningless struggle. Zeus punished King Sisyphus and required him to push a stone that repeatedly rolls away before it reaches the hilltop. These endless and frustrating efforts go on and on.
Sisyphus personifies politicians who are constantly defeated, but keep on running at election time. (Philosopher Lucretius) “It is comic that a mentally disordered man picks up any piece of granite and carries it around because he thinks it is money.” (S. Kierkegaard)
The stone at Jesus’ tomb had been rolled away once and for all without any human intervention. No need to worry about rolling away the stone. In his time, God relieves man of his worries. Though, it looked like God did nothing to intervene at man’s inhumanity to God-made-Man, yet he had the last word, he rolled the stone away – the resurrection. Carlo Carretto, an Italian spiritual writer, spent more than 20 years in solitude in the Sahara desert. He felt that God says to the world to wait and to be patient with Him! (R. Rolheiser, Patience With God.) He would “roll the stone away” again and again, according to his plan. Be patient!
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