Quem Quaeritis?
AM Psalm 45 • PM Psalm 47, 48
1 Kings 16:23-34 • Phil. 1:12-30 • Mark 16:1-8(9-20)
Mark’s Gospel closes with the most dramatic event of our faith story, relayed to us by all four Gospel writers with slight variations: Jesus’ resurrection and his appearance in living flesh to his followers. Chapter 16 begins, “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.” Matthew names Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” visiting the open tomb that morning; John names only Mary Magdalene; and Luke, after naming Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, adds “and other women.” So how many women, how many Marys, visited the tomb to witness the Resurrection, and who were they?
Anyone who says there are no contradictions in the Bible should try to explain the personnel of this scenario in the four Gospels, but, in truth, it doesn’t matter. Women only, named or not, were there, and the presence of Mary Magdalene, apostle to the Apostles, is noted by all the Gospel writers. Mark tells the story matter-of-factly. Worried that there won’t be anyone there to roll the stone away, they find instead that the tomb is open and a young man, “dressed in a white robe”—an angel—instructs them not to be afraid. “He has risen...go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee,” where Jesus will meet his friends, as he’d promised.
The great Greek tragedies, which originated in religious festivals, were followed by the degeneracy of the Roman theater. After the first century A.D., the theater declined and eventually the Christian church condemned it as an instrument of evil. How interesting, then, that the Church brought drama to life again, with this very story of the Marys at the tomb. Liturgicaldrama, played out in the Church’s reenactment of the Last Supper through the Holy Eucharist, existed in the Mass, but without dialogue there was no theatricaldrama. It is in Bishop Aethelwold’s Regularis Concordia, written in Latin around the year 965, giving stage directions for the Quem Quaeritis (“Whom seek ye?”) to the Benedictine monks at Winchester, that we have documentation of dialogue being added to the Easter Sunday Mass:
Angel: “Whom seek ye in the sepulchre, O Christians?”
Three Marys: “Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, O angel.”
Angel: “He is not here. He has arisen as He foretold: Go, announce that He has arisen from the grave.”
There we have the beginnings of the wealth of religious drama to follow through the Middle Ages, resurrected by the very institution that had banned it, through this short dialogue between the angel and the women, now merged simply as “three Marys.” The parts of the angel and the women would all have been portrayed by priests in this later representation, of particular interest since it was the men who were so conspicuously absent at the tomb on that third day.
Written by Kay DuVal
Kay Niell grew up Southern Baptist and married John DuVal, a Roman Catholic. They both found their spiritual home in the Episcopal Church along the way. Thanks be to God.