These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.

EASTER SUNDAY

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. (Jn 20:1)

Mary Magdalene is the first witness to the Resurrection. Which is why the early church always called her, the “Apostle to the Apostles.” She is the one who brings the Good News to Peter and to the Beloved Disciple, and of course to us. In this time of fear, panic and grief, Mary Magdalene still brings us Good News of a Love stronger than death. As the old sequence asks:

Tell us, Mary, what did you see on the way?

And Mary Magdalene answers:

"I saw the tomb of the living Christ and the glory of his rising, The angelic witnesses, the clothes and the shroud. Christ my hope is arisen; into Galilee, he will go before his own."

CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!! ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA!!!