Rabboni

Even today, I daresay, the mall shoppers post-Protestants, recovering Catholics, secular humans, and so forth have some general idea hat Easter is about! "he eggs are a nice symbolic touch! #nd hot cross buns seem still to be available in the upmar$et groceterias! Indeed, they ere yesterday, hen I as laying in provisions for recovery from %ent, and I am munching one as I try to concoct, in the very early morning of this &ay, some sort of Easter 'essage from the (igh &oganate! )Perhaps I should have thought of it before!* +ut I have myself been losing the thread, of hot cross buns, as I reali,e upon a little reflection! "hey ere an English custom, associated ith -ood .riday! "hey ere hat you got to eat that day/ one hot cross bun! +y an old convention, they ere to be ba$ed one at a time0 as I understand, there ere anciently rules and regulations! "he ba$er ho sold them on other than the prescribed days as liable to have his hole stoc$ confiscated, and distributed among the poor! )+ravo1* "his as some time ago, ho ever! "he la may ell be still on the boo$s, in England, but I doubt that it has been enforced, these last fe centuries! (ot cross buns ere any ay ba$ed mostly at home, as a matter not of state, but of family tradition! "he custom spread, ith the +ritish Empire, and so as thoroughly Canadiani,ed! I have a memory from my littlehood of laying the shortcrust pastry )made sinfully, ith lard* for a cross! It could not have been in my o n home, ho ever! 2 I fasten upon the bun, in the $no ledge that it is something very small! %ast Easter, under the title, Come running, and in the audiophonic company of 3!4! +ach, I fastened on the small ith the large of the Resurrection! (is Easter 5ratorio begins breathlessly ith the running of Peter and 3ohn to the empty tomb! 'ary 'agdalene has tipped them off/ something has happened! "he body is gone! +ach musically depicts the apostles, running! Peter slips0 3ohn overta$es him! It is 3ohn ho arrives first0 then halts! +ut it is Peter, arriving, ho does not hesitate, ho al$s right in! "here is such depth of symbolism in this, for (oly Church! +ut it as 'ary 'agdalene ho had discovered the tomb as empty in the first place, because she had come to attend to it, ith no particular e6pectation of anything, and only that very omanly sense of her o n unre ardable duty! #nd it as 'ary ho remained, still eeping, hen 3ohn and Peter ent a ay! It as she, 'ary, peering into the hollo through her tears, ho then discerned the angels sitting at head and foot here the body of 3esus as supposed to be! It as they, ho as$ed hy she as eeping! )+ecause they have ta$en a ay my %ord, and I $no not here they have laid him!* It as to a man she mistoo$ for the gardener that she turned, hen he as$ed

her the same 7uestion, and she as$ed him in return if he had removed the body, and if so here he had ta$en it! .or she did not recogni,e, in that first moment, the Resurrected Christ! 8ntil he said, 'ary! "o hich she replied, Rabboni! "hese small details come from the -ospel of 3ohn! %ong have I been convinced, but as I gro older become more convinced, that the -ospel hich is ac$no ledged to be most theologically profound, is also, parado6ically, the most factual! "he archaeologists have largely confirmed this by no , but to the attentive reader there as all along an e6ceptionally clear ring of truth throughout 4aint 3ohn9s e6position! :hich is not to belittle the synoptic gospels, nor doubt the peculiar value in each! .or each in its ay captures telling details, the small things hich fi6 the large in the human understanding! "he %ife of Christ, the &eath and Resurrection, are a narrative, to be sure, but the authors of these gospels are not biographers! "heir chronologies are vague, accidental, and their omissions frustrating from the angle of human interest! )It is because I have been an editor, that I tell you these accounts have not been recensed!* :riting as and hen they did, the storyline is almost ta$en for granted! "hey rite to itness, not to storytell! 'atthe , it is true, has the habits of a bureaucrat, 'ar$ is more street smart, %u$e is courtly! 5ur appreciation of the respective points of vie has been diminished by generations of scholars, determined to believe in phantoms, to get behind the te6ts by postulating some evolutionary development of them, on the basis of no evidence hatever! 3ohn, to my mind, utterly defeats this patient e6ercise in fatuity! "here is Christ, or there is no Christ! 4ignificant details are presented in the gospels, of the small that enunciates the large0 more is enunciated in the "radition hich attests the canonicity of those -ospels! :hat e find on further modern in7uiry hat I found, as a hac$ ;ournalist, al$ing the old roads of Palestine to the archaeological sites, and reading hat I could of the current literature )I rote an account filling a ne spaper section of the Ottawa Citizen a fe years ago* is that the account of "radition holds up e6tremely ell! I don9t thin$ the issue is accept it or re;ect it any more! "o the candid mind it is either deal ith it, or ignore it! "he ay of our orld is, ignore it and move on! "he ay of our orld is to move on, mindlessly, to ards e6tinction! It is, as I am reminded every day and every hour, the orld of #&&! "he initials of course stand for analogue-digitaldigital! 5r alternatively, attention deficit disorder! 4omething big might happen, but unless it is communicated to us in terms comprehensible to our hand-held devices, it is unli$ely that e

ill ta$e any notice! (ence the <e Evangelism! (ave you heard the ne s= "here are t o, and I should thin$, only t o ays to respond to hat has happened! 5ne is to go on cultivating #&&! #nd the other is to reply, Rabboni!