<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Happy\nEaster! Christ is Risen; Christ is alive! Alleluia, Alleluia!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today we\ncelebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Today’s feast is the most\nsolemn of all; it is the summit of the liturgical year: the culmination of Lent\nand the beginning of Easter. Death has been overcome; it has been defeated:\never-lasting life poured out, offered to you and me, to everyone by the\nsacrifice of Christ. Easter, today, is the most joyous of days because sin and\ndeath have been overcome!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now,\nbrothers and sisters, it is true that like Mary Magdalene at the beginning of\ntoday’s Gospel, many of us may still feel in the dark. There is so much going\non these days, especially with the global COVID-19 pandemic, that we may\nrightly ask ourselves: If God has triumphed over sin and death, why is all of\nthis still happening? Maybe Mary Magdalene’s experience can help us make sense\nof it… The story in today’s Gospel is a fascinating account of coming to\nfaith. Mary Magdalene begins her day very early, while it is still dark.\nAlthough an indication of time, this is also an indication of the state of her\nfaith. Her Lord had died the painful death of the Cross, and her sorrow is all\ntoo real. Jesus is gone. He died on the Cross; Mary Magdalene was there; she\nsaw it. Now, in her grief, she tries to hold on to what is left, but she cannot\nfind the body. She goes to the disciples, continually stoops in to look at the\nempty tomb as if to make sure that this is real, she sees angels, and even the\nvery one she is looking for, but her sorrow and pain are so blinding that she\nis unmoved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The current\npandemic may feel like this to some of us. Many have died, many are sick, a lot\nhave lost their jobs, most of us are separated from family and loved ones\nwithout knowing when we will be able to hold them close again. Like Mary\nMagdalene, we all, to varying degrees, experience sorrow and pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But these,\nnor even death, are to have the last word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally,\nthe gardener calls Mary Magdalene by name. She turns around, and standing there\nis the risen Lord. I try to imagine what Mary must have felt at that moment\nand, honestly, I cannot fathom it. The very one she was desperately looking\nfor, whom she had been turning every last stone upside down to find, the very\none for whom she would have given everything to find the dead body of, is now\ncalling her by name. The sound of the risen Lord must have been like blinding\nlight when everything has gone pitch dark, like a stream of running and fresh\nwater after being lost in the desert for days, like a delicious and tasty\nbanquet after going days without anything to eat; like overwhelming joy after\ndarkening sorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The risen\nLord dispels Mary Magdalene’s grief and pain with just one word from His mouth.\nStill, he tells her not to hold onto Him: \u201cDo not hold me, for I have not yet\nascended to the Father,\u201d he says. See, things are not only going to go back to\nthe way they used to be before the Cross. They will be even better. The pain\nand suffering of the Cross have changed everything. By His Cross, Jesus has\nmade her, the disciples, and all of us, his brothers and sisters, children of\nthe same Father, heirs, not to this passing life that we know, but to eternal life!\nAll of a sudden, she, who had not understood the words of the angels, God\u2019s\nmessengers at the tomb, has now become the messenger herself! Brothers and\nsisters, I know that during these times\u2014perhaps not even necessarily because of\nthe pandemic, but even because of life hardships in general\u2014the joy of Easter\ncan seem distant and unrelated to us. However, if Jesus has died and risen to\ngive us eternal life, this means that nothing should cause us to despair,\nbecause there is nothing to fear. He has conquered death itself! Moreover, this\nlife that He wants to give us is not only for eternity, but it is the light, the\njoy and the peace that He wants to offer us now, amid our hardships. Let us\nheed His voice, calling each one of us by name, and let us turn and embrace the\nlife HE wants to give us. Happy Easter! Christ is Risen; Christ is alive! Alleluia,\nAlleluia!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Santiago Torres<\/strong> \u2013 St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fot. Joshua Eckstein\/Unsplash.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Easter Sunday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-strona-glowna-najnowsze","category-strona-glowna-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n