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.
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!!!
O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam that gained for us so great a Redeemer! Most blessed of all nights chosen by God to see Christ rising from the dead! —The Exultet
Then the angel said to the women in reply, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ Behold, I have told you.” (Mt 28:5-7)
Matthew’s angel gets it done . . . He announces the Good News, and adds, “Behold, I have told you.” And away he goes. Even though we might have a ton of questions . . . the angel doesn’t wait around . . . and neither do the women. They fulfill the mission they received "to go and tell" . . . and along the way they have an encounter with the Risen Lord. Maybe for us too the message is the same: “He is going before you to Galilee—there you will see him.” He always goes ahead us. We just have to keep up with him in all the Gaillees of the world.
Something strange is happening- – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. —An Ancient Holy Saturday Homily
COLLECT All-powerful and ever-living God, your only Son went down among the dead and rose again in glory. In your goodness raise up your faithful people, buried with him in baptism, to be one with him in the eternal life of heaven, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. (Jn 19:25-27)
I have been crucified with Christ, and the life I live now is not my own, it is Christ living in me; oh I still live my human life, but it is a life of faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me. (Saint Paul, Galatians 2:19-20)
O Love, how deep, how broad, how high, how passing thought and fantasy, that God, the Son of God should give himself for love of me. (Saint Bernard of Clairvaux)
Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. (Jn 13:1)
In the Fourth Gospel, the Foot Washing is the center of the last supper that Jesus has with his disciples. As the Lord says, “If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.” If Jesus can “get low” to go to the Cross, then we are called to “get low” and wash each other’s feet. Maybe that’s what “he loved them to the end” is all about. Jesus, the one who came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for us all.
