Daily Reflections ...

Consider for a moment the Virgin Mary’s journey over these last three days. Anyone who has children knows the power of what the ancient Greeks called storge love – a parent’s love towards their children. When a child is sick or seriously injured, the feeling of alarm, anxiety and stress is different to any other kind of alarm, anxiety or stress. It shakes you at your deepest place. It can feel like someone is reaching through your stomach, grabbing hold of your spine, and shaking it. It reverberates through every part of your body.

Mary conceived Jesus, held him in her arms, raised him, walked with him, fed him and eventually followed him. She is often present with the disciples throughout the gospels. She loves her son. On Thursday night, she sees him betrayed. On Friday, she sees her son condemned, scourged, mocked, made to carry his cross up Golgotha, and then she is found at the foot of the cross as Jesus is crucified. It’s hard to give words to the kind of trauma and horror Mary would have experienced. In his death, she’d likely have felt complete shock, disbelief, horror, and the type of paralysis one feels when something so traumatic and shocking has taken place.

In today’s reading, at dawn on the third day, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, go to Jesus’ tomb with spices. When they arrived, they found the tomb open and empty. The words of the two angels at the tomb must have been baffling. “Why look among the dead for someone who is alive? He is not here; he is risen.”

The disciples also found this news baffling, and Peter and the beloved disciple ran to the tomb to see if it was true. Yet the tomb is empty – Jesus is alive. Again, let’s reflect on Mary’s experience. This news of her son’s resurrection from the dead must have filled her with such joy and relief. She’d likely have just wanted to hold him tight, sobbing in his arms. Her son was dead, but today he’s alive.

The significance of the resurrection for all of us is profound. Jesus’ resurrection means that Jesus has defeated sin and death. Jesus’ resurrection guarantees our resurrection: “Death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor 15:55). In baptism, we join with Jesus in his death as we go into the water and join in his resurrection as we emerge from it. Just as the resurrection would have brought incredible joy and relief to Mary, so Jesus’ resurrection brings us joy today. We are an Easter people. Out of the darkness of the crucifixion comes the light of the resurrection. Mary’s joy is our joy. The last word is not death, it is life, and the Catholic life is the resurrected life.

The joy of the resurrection juxtaposed with the horror of the crucifixion deserves our attention. If the Catholic life really is the resurrected life, then a common character trait amongst Catholics should be joy. A central motif of our liturgy should be joy. If there is no joy, then we have forgotten the resurrection. If there is no resurrection, there is no good news. If there is no good news, there is no gospel. If there is no gospel, then we have nothing.

Holy Spirit, this Easter, reveal to us the joy of the resurrection. May this joy fill our souls in such measure that it can be shared with all around us.

by Peter Pellicaan