Evenings With Bede are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where I am Rector. The format is a Scripture passage, then a passage of commentary from the Venerable S. Bede, then a short homily by yours truly expounding upon both. The audio for all three is found above. The text of the two passages is found below.

A Lesson from the Gospel according to S. Luke 24.1

On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women went to the tomb, carrying spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel; and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.

A Lesson from a Homily by the Venerable S. Bede (Homily II.10)

“Carrying spices which they had prepared” is well said. In our case the earlier preparation of the spices we carry to perform our service to the Lord is the purging of our hearts from pointless thoughts before the time of prayer, so that at the time of prayer we are able to admit nothing unclean in our minds, and to think of nothing that concerns transitory matter beyond what we are praying for, and to remember Who it is Whom we are praying to, according to the example of the Psalmist who said, “My heart is prepared, O Lord, my heart is prepared; I will sing and say my psalm to the Lord.” One who enters a church to pray, and neglects to drive away from his mind its usual superfluous thoughts while he pours forth his words of entreaty, is like a person seeking the Lord without bringing with him the spices he has prepared. Saint Luke tells us “The women found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.” According to the historical sense, we know from what the evangelist Matthew tells us that an angel came down from heaven and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the tomb. This was not done so that the angel might make a way for the Lord to go out, but so that the open and empty space of the tomb might divulge to human beings that He had risen again. Mystically, the rolling away of the stone implies the disclosure of the divine sacraments, which were formerly hidden and closed up by the letter of the law. The law was written on stone. Indeed in the case of each of us, when we acknowledge our faith in the Lord’s Passion and Resurrection, His Tomb, which had been closed, is opened up. We enter the tomb, but we do not find the body of the Lord, when in our hearts we carefully think back over the order of events in His Incarnation and Passion, and recall that He has risen from the dead and is no longer to be seen in His mortal flesh.

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