On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
 (JN 20: 1-9)

It is paradoxical in a way that here in Louisiana, as the COVID19 pandemic rages in the population, Spring is spectacularly making its presence known in blooms and scents.  There is an aliveness that hangs in the air even as there is anxiety and fearfulness present in that same air.  Nature’s ways are as merciful as they are treacherous.  In all this, Easter has arrived and is repeating its age-old story.

A Century Plant sits in the front yard of our home.

The Century Plant (Agave Americana) is a beautiful drought-resistant species of Agave, whose name is a bit of an embellishment.  Rather than 100 years, the plant’s life span is closer to around 30 years.  The plant is native of Mexico, but is grown as an ornamental plant world-wide.    A curious characteristic about the Century Plant is that it only blooms once in its lifetime.  The bloom stalk is spectacular in height (15-40 feet) and its girth can be as thick as a tree trunk.  In Mexico, the stalks are cut to retrieve sweet sap that is made into an alcoholic drink called pulque.  The sap is also used as sweeteners and the leaves of the plant can be used for clothing and rope.  In addition, the century plant can also be cooked and eaten.

The white or yellow clusters of blooms on the towering stalk usually last about a month before they begin to wither along with the stalk.  As the stalk dies, it kills off the rest of the plant with it.  However, prior to death, underground shoots of the plant produce many ‘pups’ at the plants base that carry the life-giving of this plant forward.

I recall fondly a trip to Cinque Terre several years back and seeing so many of these spectacular blooms on the Century Plant lining the cliffs of the Italian fishing villages along the Ligurian Sea coastline.  The Century Plant growing in our front yard is quite large and has produced several ‘pups’ throughout the years.  It is at least 15-20 years old, and was an inheritance from Leonard’s Mom, who loved plants herself.  The plant now sits in the garden named in honor of her, the Ruby Garden.  The plant has not yet bloomed and although I look forward to when it will, there is some trepidation in knowing that the bloom itself will mark its demise and descent.

Like so many forms of life, there is the giving away, the fruitfulness, the nourishment, the protection, provided to ‘others’ and ultimately there is exhaustion and death, but also new life spawned simultaneously, and as in the case of the Century Plant, through hidden passageways of life that grow underground before surfacing as new life.

When Mary Magdalen arrived at the tomb and found it empty on that Easter morning, she proclaimed:

“They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”

When Peter and another disciple arrive at the tomb, they enter one at a time and see that Jesus indeed was not in the tomb, yet they found burial cloths, which seemed to give them some sense of hope and even belief that the tomb was not a dead end – that Jesus’ departure may have deeper significance and hidden meaning than they could presently see and experience.  Jesus’ going underground in the tomb of death may yet have a life-giving meaning, a more-ness that just cannot be fully ascertained.  They did not yet understand…that he had to rise from the dead.

They had no idea what new life would sprout at the base of this WAY of life that had Jesus taught them.  They did not yet sense what this ‘rising’ would look like and what responsibility it would place upon them.  They did not yet realize that they would also be called to die to their own lives and strangely but wonderfully become new life, as Paul tells the Colossians:

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory”  (COL 3: 1-4)

The empty tomb on that first day of the week that we would latter call Easter is the sacred chapel of mystery that somehow tells us about the holy spaciousness of life through death and the pathway that must be taken in order to participate in the Divine Human Life, constantly arising!  It’s the pattern of the ageless Century Plant.  It is the template of Divine Life set in motion underground in a tomb, hidden and then appearing over and over again as Christ blooms ever more in the universe.

As we enter into the Easter Season in both emptiness and fullness, shall we address Mary of Magdala’s concern and discover where, after having departed the tomb, Christ has truly been ‘put.’