Happy Easter! Christ is Risen; Christ is alive! Alleluia, Alleluia!
Today we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Today’s feast is the most solemn of all; it is the summit of the liturgical year: the culmination of Lent and the beginning of Easter. Death has been overcome; it has been defeated: ever-lasting life poured out, offered to you and me, to everyone by the sacrifice of Christ. Easter, today, is the most joyous of days because sin and death have been overcome!
Now, brothers and sisters, it is true that like Mary Magdalene at the beginning of today’s Gospel, many of us may still feel in the dark. There is so much going on these days, especially with the global COVID-19 pandemic, that we may rightly ask ourselves: If God has triumphed over sin and death, why is all of this still happening? Maybe Mary Magdalene’s experience can help us make sense of it… The story in today’s Gospel is a fascinating account of coming to faith. Mary Magdalene begins her day very early, while it is still dark. Although an indication of time, this is also an indication of the state of her faith. Her Lord had died the painful death of the Cross, and her sorrow is all too real. Jesus is gone. He died on the Cross; Mary Magdalene was there; she saw it. Now, in her grief, she tries to hold on to what is left, but she cannot find the body. She goes to the disciples, continually stoops in to look at the empty tomb as if to make sure that this is real, she sees angels, and even the very one she is looking for, but her sorrow and pain are so blinding that she is unmoved.
The current pandemic may feel like this to some of us. Many have died, many are sick, a lot have lost their jobs, most of us are separated from family and loved ones without knowing when we will be able to hold them close again. Like Mary Magdalene, we all, to varying degrees, experience sorrow and pain.
But these, nor even death, are to have the last word.
Finally, the gardener calls Mary Magdalene by name. She turns around, and standing there is the risen Lord. I try to imagine what Mary must have felt at that moment and, honestly, I cannot fathom it. The very one she was desperately looking for, whom she had been turning every last stone upside down to find, the very one for whom she would have given everything to find the dead body of, is now calling her by name. The sound of the risen Lord must have been like blinding light when everything has gone pitch dark, like a stream of running and fresh water after being lost in the desert for days, like a delicious and tasty banquet after going days without anything to eat; like overwhelming joy after darkening sorrow.
The risen Lord dispels Mary Magdalene’s grief and pain with just one word from His mouth. Still, he tells her not to hold onto Him: “Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father,” he says. See, things are not only going to go back to the way they used to be before the Cross. They will be even better. The pain and suffering of the Cross have changed everything. By His Cross, Jesus has made her, the disciples, and all of us, his brothers and sisters, children of the same Father, heirs, not to this passing life that we know, but to eternal life! All of a sudden, she, who had not understood the words of the angels, God’s messengers at the tomb, has now become the messenger herself! Brothers and sisters, I know that during these times—perhaps not even necessarily because of the pandemic, but even because of life hardships in general—the joy of Easter can seem distant and unrelated to us. However, if Jesus has died and risen to give us eternal life, this means that nothing should cause us to despair, because there is nothing to fear. He has conquered death itself! Moreover, this life that He wants to give us is not only for eternity, but it is the light, the joy and the peace that He wants to offer us now, amid our hardships. Let us heed His voice, calling each one of us by name, and let us turn and embrace the life HE wants to give us. Happy Easter! Christ is Risen; Christ is alive! Alleluia, Alleluia!
Santiago Torres – St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta
Fot. Joshua Eckstein/Unsplash.com