I have a suggestion that borders on being a
request! Read again and reflect on the Easter story of the woman
known to us as Mary Magdalene. It is a name that is always associated
with the Resurrection story. (John 20, Mt. 28, Lk. 24). What a
pity we don’t have it in the readings for Easter Sunday instead
of reading it on the weekdays that follow.
Mary was one of the women who accompanied Jesus as he travelled
on his journey of teaching and healing. St. Matthew’s Gospel
presents her at the crucifixion and she is there when Christ’s
body is being prepared for burial.
The church is always in need of a ‘blood transfusion from
the lives of the saints’. They inject new life into our attitudes
and thinking as they share our brokenness and sinfulness.
Mary Magdalene was healed by Jesus and she was the first woman
follower to be named in St. Luke’s Gospel. According to St.
John, Mary visits the tomb on Easter Sunday morning. We can only
imagine her distraught condition when she discovered that it was
empty. She runs to tell the news to Peter and the other disciples. “They
have taken the Lord from the tomb and we don’t know where
they have put him.” Who are the “they” she is
referring to? I suppose it takes some of the pain away if we can
blame someone else for what happened. When they go back home Mary
stays at the tomb weeping. It was difficult to go beyond the grief
she had for Jesus, the person she had known, to the risen Christ.
She looks into the tomb and sees the two angels and then receives
the ultimate reward for her loyalty when Jesus appears to her.
She fails to recognise him until he calls her by name. Afterwards
he says, “Go to my brothers”. She is the first witness
of the Resurrection. Then Jesus says to her, “Stop holding
on to me for I am not yet ascended to the Father”.
An experience we share
The loss of a loved one is the common thread that binds us all
together. But as Mary discovered, “the Lord is close
to the broken hearted”.
The Ascension, which we have celebrated, explains the transition
between the earthly and the enduring presence of Christ. The
ascension, as expressed in St. John’s gospel, clarifies
the concept of ‘not clinging’, of letting go of Jesus
as we once had him, in order to be able to receive his new resurrected
presence given in the Holy Spirit. It throws light on the whole
concept of human love and intimacy, revealing the paradox between
presence and absence, between having to let go of the one kind
of presence in order to receive another. For those of us who
have lost a loved one that always involves pain but on deeper
reflection it also gives hope. A new life begins for those we
lose in seeming death.
– Fr. Jimmy
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