Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”
His death ends all divisions. Life and death, the holy and the profane, are no longer opposed. The ground opens to the sky. The day becomes the night. Shamans and priests, gurus and sages, rabbis and imams rise from their graves and wander the many cities of our lives, speaking wisdom in the streets and in the hidden rooms of our souls. When the sun disappears the starkness of our shadows disappear, the blaze of triumph grays to the same quietness that hold defeat. God is present in everything, even in the shadows, even in our pain.
His death only reveals what is already here. Divinity cracked open at the moment of creation. Divine love flowing through all beings. All the oppositions that we make, all the divisions we use to conquer, fall away. We do not control or rule this world, or ourselves. We are not the same people from day to day, and the world, also, flows with endless change. The only constant is divine love, full of solace, full of fear for us. The only constant is God’s participation in each person’s joy, and each person’s cross.
KPB Stevens 