“Behold, the favour of the reviving world bears witness that all gifts have returned together with its Lord. For in honour of Christ rising triumphant after His descent to the gloomy Tartarus, the grove on every side with its leaves expresses approval, the plants with their flowers express approval. The light, the heaven, the fields, and the sea duly praise the God ascending above the stars, having crushed the
laws of hell. Behold, He who was crucified reigns as God over all things, and all created objects offer prayer to their Creator. Hail, festive day, to be reverenced throughout the world, on which God has conquered hell, and gains the stars!”
St Venentius Fortunatus, Poem on Easter
(What needs "conquering" in you at this time? Invite the risen Jesus to give you strength to overcome.)
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Acts 2:36-41; Psalm 33:4-5, 18-19, 20 and 22
Jn 20:11-18
Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb
and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet
where the Body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
She said to them, “They have taken my Lord,
and I don’t know where they laid him.”
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?”
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
“Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,”
which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me,
for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
But go to my brothers and tell them,
‘I am going to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.’”
Mary went and announced to the disciples,
“I have seen the Lord,”
and then reported what he had told her.
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Reflection on the Scriptures
It is worth pausing at this time after Easter to recall how we are sometimes prevented from seeing Jesus because of our sadness and grief. He's always right here with us, but we can't recognize him because we aren't really looking for him, with expectation and an anticipation of the joy we will experience in the encounter. Instead, we are caught up, distracted, absorbed in worries, concerns, genuine problems,
even crises. We are sometimes in pain or caught up in anger. We might even find ourselves blaming our Lord for our problems or for the unfreedoms of others.
It is here that we notice what opened Mary's eyes, what changed her attention from herself and allowed her to recognize Jesus right there with her. She heard him say her name. Then she knew, this was not a gardener, or an idea, or an article of faith. This was Jesus, who loved her and had healed her. He'd driven seven demons out of her. She was a woman of means; she bankrolled Jesus' and his disciples' itinerant
ministry. She came from a business town, Magdala. Perhaps she was caught up in her wealth and was without care for the poor - seven demons worth of un-care. His lovingly calling her by name woke her up to seeing him risen, standing in front of her.
This Easter week, we can let Jesus say our name - address us with affection and intimacy - and grab our attention away from the sadness and grief, pain and anger. He wants to draw us this week from thinking about the resurrection, to experiencing the presence of our risen Lord with us, close to us, loving us. Like Mary, we may be tempted to want to just hold onto this blessed presence and keep it for ourselves, but
there is a third step to this resurrection encounter.
Jesus sends Mary to announce the Good News to his brothers. It is a remarkable mission. First of all, in Jesus' Jewish culture, a woman was not allowed to be an official witness in a hearing or trial. Jesus chooses her. Could it be that the men would have known what a credible witness she w
- by Andy Alexander, S.J.
The Son of God Became Human
From The Catechism of the Catholic Church
Part One, Section Two, Chapter Two
Article 3: He Was Conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit, and Born of the Virgin Mary
Paragraph 1: The Son of God Became Man
VII. CHRIST'S TRUE BODY
476 Since the Word became flesh in assuming a true humanity, Christ's body was finite.112 Therefore the human face of Jesus can be portrayed; at the seventh ecumenical council (Nicaea II in 787) the Church recognized its representation in holy images to be legitimate.113
477 At the same time the Church has always acknowledged that in the body of Jesus "we see our God made visible and so are caught up in love of the God we cannot see."114 The individual characteristics of Christ's body express the divine person of God's Son. He has made the features of his human body his own, to the point that they can be venerated when portrayed in a holy image, for the believer "who venerates the
icon is venerating in it the person of the one depicted".115
(Footnote references in the Catechism.)
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