At A Loss: A Holy Saturday Homily

Contemplating Grief and Loss: A Reflection on Jesus' Death Following the Gospel Reading for the day, read by Canon JP Arossa,  Bishop Michael Hunn delves into the Holy Gospel according to Matthew, recounting the events following Jesus' crucifixion and burial by Joseph of Arimathea. The sermon explores the profound themes of grief and loss, drawing parallels between our human experiences and God's own grief at the death of Jesus Christ. It invites the audience to reflect on the harrowing notion of a world where death is the final end and encourages a return to contemplate the significance of what comes next.

00:00 The Burial of Jesus

00:50 The Guard at the Tomb

02:09 Reflections on Loss and Grief

04:18 God's Experience of Loss

05:57 Contemplating a World Without Resurrection

07:11 A Call to Witness the Resurrection

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I am reading from the Holy Gospel of our savior, Jesus Christ, according to Matthew when it was evening.

(00:10):
There came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus.
Joseph went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him, so Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth.
And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had a HU in the rock.

(00:36):
Joseph then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away.
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there sitting opposite the tomb.
The next day, that is after the day of preparation, the chief priest in the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said.

(01:00):
Sir, we remember what that imposter said while he was alive.
After three days, I will rise again.
Therefore, command the tune to be made secure until the third day.
Otherwise, his disciples may go and steal him away and tell the people he has been raised from the dead and the last deception.

(01:23):
Would be worse than the first.
PIL said to them, you have a guard of soldiers, go make it as secure as you can.
So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone, the gospel of the Lord.

(01:47):
You see, Lord Christ.
Let us pray.
May the word of God be spoken and may the word of God be heard.
Amen.
Amen.

(02:09):
You may have heard of the phrase.
I'm at a loss.
I often hear it when you ask somebody a question and then they just don't know the answer and they say, ah, I'm at a loss.
I can't remember that name, or that the date that that was, or what that thing was, I, I just, I'm at a loss.

(02:29):
But today we are at a loss and to be at a loss.
Really is to to be in a place of grief.
It is to have lost something, someone in such a way that our grief feels like a physical location.

(02:54):
To be at a loss is to be like in the ocean or in the desert.
It to be in a location where there is vastness around us.
If you've ever lost someone that you love, or if you've ever lost a physical ability, or if you've ever lost a part of yourself, you know what it is.

(03:16):
To be at a loss, to be physically present in a place where all you're aware of is what you have lost.
The person who died, who isn't here and every day, every moment you are aware of their absence, the rest of the world feels like they are somewhere else.

(03:38):
But you are at a loss at the place of losing at the place of grief.
And sometimes when we are at a loss, it feels like part of ourselves is what is dead.
Like when a leg is amputated and you still feel its existence, but you know it's not there.

(04:04):
Losing a loved one is like that.
It feels like they should be here, but they're not because we are at a loss today.
God experiences what it is to be at a law.

(04:25):
Because today part of God, God the Son, Jesus Christ is dead Today.
Jesus experiences what we will all experience what it is to die, what it is to not be alive on this earth.

(04:46):
Today, God experiences that lying dead in the tomb.
On the cold slab.
No breath in his lungs, no blood pumping through his body.
No.
No thoughts.

(05:07):
No life today.
God is at a loss and God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit, the rest of God experiences grief.
What it is to lose part of oneself A beloved.
Today, God experiences both the death that we will all experience and the grief that we all experience today.

(05:37):
God is at a loss in both of those ways, grieving the death of Jesus Christ at the hands of humanity.
And also experiencing death quite literally in the flesh.
On this day, we, the church contemplate what the world would be like if death were the end.

(06:06):
If all we had to look forward to was our own death and our own grief, this is what our world would be.
An empty hollow cold husk of a way of being.
And we know many people over the time have believed that there is nothing past death, that there is no God to save us.

(06:33):
And they've tried to compensate for that grief and being at a loss by saying, oh, just, uh, eat, drink, and be merry.
'cause tomorrow we die.
Or, you know, life is short, so make the most of it.
But if we are only looking forward to our death and our grief, then we live at a loss and only at a loss.

(07:04):
So on this day, let us really feel the weight of what the world would be.
If it only ended in grief, if it only ended in death, but my friends, come back.

(07:25):
Come back to see what's about to happen.
Amen.