Easter Tuesday

Readings: Acts 2:36-41; Psalm 32 (33):4-5,18-20,22; John 20:11-18

‘On the court, I am fierce! I am mean and I am tough,’ said the American tennis player Serena Williams in an interview for Vogue Magazine in 2005.  ‘I am completely the opposite off the court,’ she continued.  ‘My confidence just isn’t the same.  I wish I was more like I am on the court.  Nobody would know that I am constantly crying or complaining.”

We often try to hide our tears, conceal our sadness, try to be strong and fierce in the public eye.  Today’s gospel reading is filled with tears which freely flow.  Mary Magdalene is mentioned twelve times in the gospels, more than most of the apostles and more than any other woman in the gospels. One thing that we significantly remember her for are her tears.

She weeps at the entrance way of Jesus’ tomb and, as she stoops to look in, she continues to weep.  Alone and beside herself, her sadness and distress deepen.  Angels dwell where Jesus once lay but this does little to comfort her.  ‘Woman why are you weeping?’ Her voice cracks through her tears and sobbing.  She seeks the body of Jesus, needs to do what she couldn’t do a few days ago when he was buried in haste and left his body to the darkness of a sealed tomb.  From behind, out of sight, she hears another voice which echoes the angels’ question.  ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’  Her anxiety continues.  ‘Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and remove him.   He speaks her name.  ‘Mary.’  In that moment, as she recognises him, he calls for her total attention.  She tries to embrace him for she cannot contain her joy. 

Mary of Magdala’s tears have defined her, but she is, above all, defined by that message she takes to the Apostles. Her sadness is dissolved by the joy she experiences at meeting her Risen Lord. From there, Jesus sends her off and she makes haste, is fierce and confident, full of faith, unstoppable, as she carries the message of life, and the good news of the Resurrection of Christ.  She runs to tell the apostles that she has seen the Lord.  We, too, carry the same message which transforms the world. We, too, are called to share this news with others.

MAKING CONNECTIONS

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