​..2 miles west of here is a group of holy women ; 19 of them..our brethren, the Sisters of Stanbrook..& what do you think they will be doing now, just after 10pm on his Holy Night as the Christian Church brings to life & light the elements of a resurrection?  They are in good company, alongside the three favourite trusted disciples on Maundy Thursday night 48hrs ago who were?..asleep!..”could you not watch with me but one hour?”..the Sisters will be fast asleep, but not with the dullness of misunderstanding with which the three faced the despair of an imminent Gethsemane, but with an excited conscience & consciousness that when they wake at 430am tomorrow morning, up before the lark they will light their Easter candle, sing their Easter proclamation, & herald the arrival of the daystar proclaiming silently the dawn, the rising of the sun in the east & with it the rising of the Son of God from the dead Jesus Christ.. women do it differently..& always under the radar..in story of prodigal son, where was the fourth person, the mother?..I asked my young disciples in Confession 3 wks ago..she has died; she is divorced; is shopping; is in the kitchen; she’s watching daytime tv..alleluia!..the wonderful title for mother of the  prodigal is awarded in recognition of your services to family..”the glue”..& who pray is glue in tonights episode of the Resurrection story?..Mary Magdalen..Our Lords closest disciple for sure..was she at the Last Supper?.did she anoint his feet &wipe them with her tears?..a fallen woman as we have been led to believe for so long..a scapegoat like Judas to hang our own fallenness on & let us off the hook, or so we like to think..a night & a moment to think again, this time from the heart not the head..a lovely depiction of Jesus washing feet of his disciples we looked at in our School Maundy Thursday Mass..where Judas, usually seen at end of table looking away in shame holding leather bag of money,
or in a prison setting as Jesus, like Pope Francis, washes feet of inmates; Judas is over in corner, the naugty corner, with his head covered ready for the hanging to take place..&
in the depiction the children gave to me on Thursday where is their Judas?..it is he who is getting his foot washed first..the money & the signs of hanging deleted..”I give you a new commandment [on this Holy Night] love one another as I have loved you”..& will you?..
will you forgive your Judas & your Mary Magdalen..each of them real..the glue which reconnects us, each of us disciples of betrayal denial & fallenness to the real possibility at this moment of Easter Saturday to a resurrection..is it beginning to dawn on you what we are here for?..this is the fertile soil for tonights extraordinary experience..its not a liturgy nor an event it is an experience where each of us is invited into the moment..a moment of truth..Fr Chad, who is leading Easter Retreat at Abbey, has prepared four talks..he asked me to look at them in the week..a character described, followed by Fr Chads reflection & finally a poem for each of the four..a profound one on Mary Magdalen..I asked who had written on the four characters, as the one on Magdalen seemed to have been written by a man..he laughed told me he’d written all four..a deeply spiritual experience is to read the emergence of Magdalen by Chad alongide that of Sara Maitland..he attempts, he gets to the tomb alongside Peter & John, whilst she discovers like, the Sisters at Stanbrook, Mary had the faith &experience to be there, in there, at the likely moment..the glue between the keen eager but still doubting Thomas’ & the deeper intimacy of the fallen woman chosen, not in spite of ,but because of, all she had done & become in a life journey from mistake disrepute & disownment in her pig sty, her Gethsemane, & out into remorse & into the “ restoration of lost innocence” we heard in the Exultet 30mins ago, a still human but increasingly divine state into which she & her Jesus could play & love adventurously safely & shockingly, & now she..she..is on the verge of being the very first disciple to meet her beloved again & for the first time.. & did you hear it?..that same promise of restoration & resurrection for you tonight, a divine state into which you & your Jesus can start to play safely adventurously, & shockingly in eyes of the doubting Thomas’ in this our own upper room..will you risk it?..risk letting go of your comfort blanket & of your Easter duties..smile if you dozed off or forgot & didn’t get round to it this year..”will you not watch with me but one hour?” remember?..he doesn’t remember the 58 mins of it, what stays with him for his lifetime is the joy he read on your face & the warmth of your heart as you stood at the empty tomb & knew..& did you notice the gardener at our Easter fire out there an hour ago? ..a man or a woman?..in disrepute or redeemed?..guilty or innocent?..& did you notice & invite them into our meal to sit across there, on that Thompson seat, a presiding chair or a seat for one in recovery?..where either Judas or Mary Magdalen would be warmly welcomed, to complete the journey of the icon..”my friend, do what you are here for..”                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            [Easter Vigil Yr B Mk 16;1-7]