Mere Steps

It’s Sunday.

If you are Catholic, you know what that means. Resurrection. Christ has risen.

It doesn’t matter if it is Ordinary Time. It doesn’t matter if it’s Easter Season. It doesn’t even matter if it’s during Lent. If it is Sunday, there is a turning toward the Resurrection. Not just a glorious moment. It is the glorious moment.

Today, as I prayed the Glorious Mysteries, I thought about my trip to Israel – the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, specifically.

Ron was our guide in Israel. He had a three-ring-binder with all kinds of helpful charts and graphs. This is the picture he showed us before we entered the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Look closely at the diagram in the picture. Do you see where Ron is pointing? That is the site of the Crucifixion. Jesus died here. Now, a little to the left, between the two domes, you will see another spot, which is called the Stone of Anointing. And a little further to the left, another spot – directly under the larger dome. This is where Christ arose.

Minutes after we saw this diagram, we entered the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We touched the rock – Golgotha – Calvary – where Jesus Christ died.

We moved deeper still into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and we touched the anointing stone.

And then we entered the Rotunda, the area beneath the larger dome, where Jesus Christ arose.

These three sites are mere steps from one another.

So, today, as I prayed the Glorious Mysteries, I thought about that reality. I thought about how close they are to one another: the place of the Crucifixion, the Stone of Anointing, and the Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

It is a tangible symbol of a spiritual reality.

Sometimes, new life is mere steps away from experiences that feel like death.

An agonized cry can echo, bouncing off the stone walls, but it does not die there.

The cries echo along, until they ascend and reach the heavens.

Heaven’s Rotunda.

And here we kneel, in the Tomb, thinking there is little hope. Yes, the ultimate Sorrowful Mystery is so very close to the site of the first Glorious Mystery.

Christ has died.

Christ has risen.

And the two are mere steps from one another.

Mere steps.