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During this special time of the year, our first reading is taken, not from the Old Testament, but from the Acts of the Apostles. The Church does this for a very good reason: Acts begins with Pentecost, that special day when the Church, promised and formed by Jesus, is born. It’s the story of the Church, of the Apostles who began to fulfill Jesus’ great commission:
“Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” [Mt 28:10-20].Make disciples, baptize, teach – it all began through the preaching of the first disciples. Before the Gospel was written, it was preached. And it’s in the Acts of the Apostles, during this season of Easter, that we encounter that early Gospel preached by Peter and Paul. Listen again to Peter as he spread the Good News among the Jewish pilgrims on that first Pentecost:
“God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses. Exalted at the right hand of God, he poured forth the promise of the Holy Spirit that he received from the Father, as you both see and hear” [Acts 2:32-33].Peter’s focus is the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – the very foundation of our Christian faith. Yes, God raised Jesus…But in our Gospel passage the two Marys went to the tomb, not to see a Risen Jesus, but to anoint His body.
They knew He had died.
They had heard Him take His last breath.
They had seen the soldier's lance pierce His side.
They had grieved with His Mother as she cradled her Son's lifeless body in her arms; and they had seen Him placed hurriedly in the tomb.
Oh, yes, they knew He had died. In their grief, a grief of emptiness tinged with fear, they made their way to the tomb of a dead man.
They hadn’t understood Jesus when He spoke of His Resurrection. Faced with the finality of death, their faith and their hope had all but disappeared. Only love remained, and it’s this love for Jesus that carried them along the path to the tomb. But the tomb is empty, and a jumble of emotions filled their hearts: astonishment, confusion, fear.
It’s then they encountered their Risen Lord. The One they sought, the One Who was crucified, the One Who had died before their very eyes, is risen.
In the shock of sudden revelation, they realize that death has not had the last word, but that the Word has overcome death.
Faith and hope explode in their hearts. And just as suddenly, all of His teachings, every word He uttered, take on new meaning. Now they know what He meant by the Kingdom of God, for it is in their very midst, catapulted into the here and now by the Resurrection.
Matthew tells us the women left the tomb "fearful yet overjoyed" [Mt 28:8]. Fear and joy – a rare combination of emotions that I suspect exists only in the presence of God.
Oh, yes, they were fearful, for they had just witnessed God's awesome power, and for the first time fully understood Who Jesus is.
He is the Messiah, the Redeemer, the Chosen One, the Son of God. He is risen! And so too have all of His promises, that now make such perfect sense.
Today our world, too, is filled with fear, but fear of a different sort. It’s not the fear of God, the clear recognition of Who He is. It’s not that fear that grips today’s world. No, today so many are afraid of sickness and of death. And yet Jesus told us:
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul…” [Mt 10:28]You see, brothers and sisters, the women at the tomb had no fear of the world, for they were joyful…joyful that their trust in Jesus was not misplaced, that God loved them with an overwhelming love.
Despair had turned to hope, and that tiny kernel of faith had blossomed into a sure knowledge of redemption. This, too, should fill us with joy, even as we struggle to overcome this threat to human life.
How fitting that Jesus chose Mary Magdalene to break the news – the Good News – to a sinful world. Mary, who had been dead in the slavery of her sin, who had been sealed in a tomb of her own making had been given new life. Jesus knew that she, who had experienced God’s healing power in her own resurrection from the deadness of sin…Jesus knew she would believe.
Mary Magdalene is what every woman and every man is called to be: the sinner who became the saint, living proof of the power of God's love. She’s the “witness” that Peter described as he preached in the streets of Jerusalem, the fruit of Christ's Resurrection.
Today, as you make an act of spiritual communion, it is the Risen Jesus you encounter, the very source of our faith and hope.
Together let us lift our hearts and minds in thanksgiving and celebrate Christ's victory over death and sin, a victory that resounded throughout the universe, and continues to do so today.
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