I remember April 12, 2009 \u2013 ten years ago today. It was Easter Sunday in Jerusalem, and I was at the tomb of Jesus, filled with wonder and awe. I had spent the entire night there in prayer, and had just become the very first pilgrim to enter that Easter morning. It was an intense and transformative experience that I will never forget, an experience almost too real to remember. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher houses both the location of Christ\u2019s death on Calvary and his tomb, made forever holy by his resurrection. My friends and I joined in the Catholic liturgy at those sites for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was odd to celebrate those ceremonies in the morning rather than at night. But Jerusalem is an odd place. Because these holy sites are shared with the Orthodox, the Armenians, and the Copts, there is an age-old \u201cStatus Quo\u201d agreement that determines who has access when. The Catholic time is 8 a.m., regardless of the occasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few of us returned to the basilica that Holy Saturday night to observe a personal prayer vigil at the Lord\u2019s tomb. I\u2019m ashamed to admit that it is the one and only all-night prayer vigil of my life. Back in the day, I certainly pulled two or three academic all-nighters. Several times I stayed up through the night as part of the world\u2019s largest trivia contest in Stevens Point, WI. Ironically, that contest<\/a> begins today as well, kicking off its 50<\/a>th<\/a><\/sup> year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Staying up for fun or for approaching deadlines is one thing. For some reason, when it comes to the Lord, that level of sacrifice and generosity is elusive. Too bad, because the Lord is never outdone in generosity! On that Easter night ten years ago he was generous indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowing that I would be there all night, I was in no rush to \u201cget my prayers done\u201d or to feel like I had to be doing something at any given time. This turned it into a timeless experience. For the first few hours I simply sat back and absorbed the stream of pilgrims that were coming to the church to try to get into the tomb. Occasionally I read some Scripture passages. I began praying for the many people whom I knew needed my prayers. I was overwhelmed with a deep sense of sorrow over so many suffering souls and so many problems in the world \u2013 not to mention my own problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then something happened that (for me) only happens about once every 10 years. I began to get the inklings of a poem arising within me. For the moment I put it aside. After all, I thought, I am not a poet!<\/p>\n\n\n\n About 12:30 the friars poured in\nto pray the Office of Vigils \u2013 a series of psalms and readings. Afterwards, I\ntried to return to some Scripture and prayer, but found myself distracted. In\nthe end, I thought, \u201cWell, maybe the Lord wants me to write that poem after\nall.\u201d So I did. Once every 10 years, right? It went something like this:<\/p>\n\n\n O Tomb of Christ, this Easter Night <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was just finishing as the Orthodox began their 2 a.m. Palm Sunday Mass (their Easter was still a week away). Their somber and sorrowful chanting was beautifully haunting, and resonated with my heart. The time flew by. I began to write on that sheet of paper the names of any and every person I could think of who needed my prayer, as well as some personal intentions. The ink couldn\u2019t run onto the page fast enough. I finished about the time the Orthodox were clearing out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ironically, my watch battery had gone dead on Good Friday, so the night was truly timeless. It must have been around 4 a.m. that I attempted to enter the tomb, like Mary Magdalene, \u201cearly in the morning, while it was still dark\u201d (John 20:1). An Armenian priest was setting up for their liturgy, and it seemed quite unlikely I would be allowed in. I began to pray beads of my Rosary, reflecting on the first glorious mystery \u2013 the resurrection of Jesus \u2013 and hoping against hope. For some reason a few of the servers were late. He must have seen the longing in my face. He waved me in.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I approached, finishing the final Hail Mary\u2019s, and then entered the inner door on my knees. The moment I reached the threshold I broke down and wept as I had not for a very long time. The experience is still too profound for words. The best word I can use is GLORY. I experienced the \u201cGlory of the Father\u201d by which \u201cChrist was raised from the dead\u201d (Rom 6:4), and this Glory filled me with Hope. It was not as though my sadness or the sadness of others magically went away or was minimized. But this Hope permeated my soul with an overwhelming and liberating confidence summed up in the words of St. Julian of Norwich, \u201cAll will be well, and all manner of thing will be well.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I sobbed and prayed for a few moments more before heading back out, not wanting to linger in the tomb as pilgrims sometimes selfishly do. With many tears still in my eyes, I nodded my thanks to the priest for his kindness, and returned to the side of the tomb where I had been praying the past few hours. I wedged that sheet of paper and all those intentions into the side of the tomb and continued to weep for several minutes more. Then I resumed my prayer, turning to Romans 6 and feeling the words come alive in my heart. The resurrection suddenly felt so real!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As the first streaks of dawn were just appearing, I pulled out my Liturgy of the Hours book to pray Morning Prayer. My heart was filled with praise, and so I chanted the prayers. How surreal it was to stand at the entrance near the church, chanting the antiphon, \u201cVery early on the morning after the Sabbath, when the sun had just risen, they came to the tomb, Alleluia\u201d \u2013 at the very moment that hundreds of pilgrims were rushing in to see the tomb.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As I look back ten years later, I am stunned at what came out of my heart that night. Only during the last couple of years have I found the courage to plunge into the sad and lonely places of my heart \u2013 old places of old pain that I didn\u2019t even realize existed. But those cries were there, and they prayed to the Lord that Easter night in the poem that came out of me. The Lord hears the cry of the poor, and heals the broken hearted.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ten years later, God keeps drawing my heart back to that experience. There is a dying and a rising at work in me. Part of me resists and avoids the dying, tempted instead to return to my old ways of fear and insecurity, panicking and grasping for control. I am determined not to harden my heart and return to old ways. I want to be well! The tomb is also a womb, giving birth to the newness of the resurrection. That new birth is what my heart longs for.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It should be easy to welcome the Glory of the resurrection. But it\u2019s so hard because it\u2019s so much more real. It can only be received as a gift – or rather, it is a much larger reality that we must be received into. It\u00a0is not something we can control or manage. Again and again I surrender my heart. I pray for deeper trust and faith. Who knows? Maybe I will even surrender enough to allow another poem to come out of me. It\u2019s been 10 years after all…<\/p>\n In the days of Holy Week that lie ahead, we celebrate the Paschal Mystery once again. May we all die and rise with Jesus. May the newness of his risen Glory be born in our hearts. May we be gloriously transformed and filled with Hope!<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I remember April 12, 2009 \u2013 ten years ago today. It was Easter Sunday in Jerusalem, and I was at the tomb of Jesus, filled with wonder and awe. I had spent the entire night there in prayer, and had just become the very first pilgrim to enter that Easter morning. It was an intense … <\/p>\n
I bring to you man\u2019s lonely plight:
toil, trial, sickness, woe,
unceasing wounds left by our foe,
anger, hatred, factions, fights,
fear-filled days and tear-filled nights,
heartache,heartbreak, darkness, death,
and growing pain with every breath –
but hope, hope-filled sadness
to you, the source of gladness.
O tomb that could not hold the Son
Who on this night the victory won,
I bury all my sadness here
and that of those I hold most dear,
that we may rise to second birth
here at the center of the earth.<\/em><\/p>\n