EASTER SUNDAY
4 APRIL 2021
Unlike
our experience at Christmas, we are allowed to sing at Easter. Even when singing behind masks, our voices
proclaim the Mystery of the Lord’s resurrection from the dead. We sing about something God has never done
before. The risen Christ breaks the
chains of death and transforms the world as we know it. Christ invites us to sing this Mystery with
our voices and renew our faith in our hearts.
But on
Easter Sunday, we also sing a question.
The Easter Sequence has us pleading: “O Mary, come and say, what you saw
at break of day.” We want Mary Magdalene
to share with us the good news. No
matter how many Easters we have celebrated, we still do not understand this
Mystery. We are still caught up in the
restrictions and arguments of this pandemic.
Those whom we love continue to die.
The power of disease and failure and loss still has a strong hold on our
lives and experiences. The newness of
the resurrection is not always obvious in our daily lives. So we implore: “Mary, speak.
What did you see?”
Mary’s response is unsettling. In this part of the story, she has not yet
seen the risen Christ. The sights and
sounds of the resurrection are odd and mysterious. Mary has seen the empty tomb. She has seen the burial cloths deprived of a
body. She has heard an angel making
unbelievable claims. Mary sees the glory
of the risen Lord only in these small clues.
Neither do we see the risen Lord in our Gospel on Easter Sunday. Instead, we join Mary in piecing together
these clues. After seeing the empty tomb, Mary tells Peter that someone has
taken the body. She doesn’t begin to
grasp the truth. Maybe she can’t dare to
believe it.
Later on the day of resurrection,
Mary encounters the risen Christ.
However, she does not recognize him.
Instead, she thinks that he is the gardener and asks where they have taken
the Lord’s body. She recognizes him when
he addresses her by name. Only then can
Mary proclaim her faith: “I saw Christ
Jesus risen and adored!” The risen
Christ tells her not to hold onto him, because the resurrection has radically
changed his relationship with her.
The same is true for us. The Lord’s resurrection is complete. He has restored our relationship with
him. But, our participation in the
resurrection is not complete. We certainly
encounter his real presence in this Eucharist, just as the disciples recognized
the Lord in the breaking of bread at Emmaus.
But when we are dismissed from this Mass, we are like Mary
Magdalene. We must piece together the
clues and hints of the resurrection in our daily lives. Those clues and hints
are there. We are just beginning to shed
the darkness and cold of winter to embrace the new life that spring offers
us. We can enjoy the companionship of
each other at our Easter feasts, in contrast to the isolation of last Easter,
when we were all locked down. There is a
light at the end of the tunnel in this pandemic. Many more are getting the vaccines. Life is beginning to return to normal. We can already see the beginnings of our
community of faith being restored and even strengthened after this long cross
of pandemic that we have endured. We can
recognize hints of the risen Lord in the mercy we receive from others and the mercy
which we give to those who have harmed us. We can heed Saint Paul’s advice to
throw out the old yeast of wickedness and malice and provide hints of the
resurrection by renewing our baptismal promises and living them more
completely. There are hints and clues
all around us. All we have to do is to
open our eyes of faith to recognize them.
We can join Mary’s joyful
proclamation of faith: “Yes, Christ my
hope rose gloriously. He goes before you
into Galilee. Share the good news, sing
joyfully: His death is victory! Lord Jesus, Victor King, show us mercy.” Happy Easter!
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