Tomb-Watch
**The original post was lost when we had a server crash, but here’s a bit of it that I can remember.** (KJP- 3/18/08)
Joyce Rupp, a well-known spiritual writer, has a beautiful image for what we do during Lent. She calls it “tomb-watching.” I used this image in a preaching I gave in class earlier this week. Rupp’s imagery reminded me of the friends I’ve walked with through struggles and sorrows. And like angels who watched over the body of Jesus as he laid in the tomb, so often do we do the same with our friends in the midst of the “deaths” we each experience. Through the resurrection, these tomb-watches have great power as we remain confident in the new life that comes from death. Here is an excerpt of Rupp’s words:
Tomb-Watch:
It all began with a postcard tucked inside an envelope with a letter. I’m sure my friend never knew what that small print of the fourteenth station of the cross would generate in me. Neither did I. But I did know the instant I saw the print by the southwest artist, Ettore (Ted) DeGrazia, that something (or Someone) tugged at my Lenten spirit and asked me to look longer.
DeGrazia’a print shows the body of Jesus wrapped in a traditional mummy-like white shroud, lying on a stone slab. Ah, but the body is not alone. All around it are shawled sorrowing angels keeping vigil. Their soft rainbow colors are the darkness of the tomb. Slightly bowed as they sit, one knows immediately that their hearts are weary with sadness for their Beloved. They watch with a patient vigilance, attending the One who has given all. They trustfully wait for the piercing light of Resurrection to banish the gloom of death’s house….
I understood, then, the power of these angels surrounding the shrouded body of Jesus. I saw clearly how each of us needs “tomb watches” every now and then. Maybe we are keeping vigil for a part of ourselves that lies dormant and seemingly dead or lost or has fallen into a coffin of depression or despair. Maybe that shrouded figure in us is the loss of a way to pray, a deadening unforgiveness, or a body experiencing its physical limitations. Maybe our “tomb watch” is our becoming the angel of vigil, attending someone else in pain. Maybe the vigil we keep is for the people of our world as we weep for their woe or for the Earth herself as she continues to experience humanity’s reckless waste and the grime of greed…
Easter is about “tomb watches”. It is about love that keeps vigil and waits and believes in life, no matter how dark and empty and cold the inner space feels. Easter is about hope that is willing to sit in the tomb while it trusts in transformation. Easter is about faithful companions who keep watch with us and cheer us on as we wait for our inner resurrection”.