Out of all the scriptures passages in the bible, the gospel reading today is the most beautiful and powerful words that have ever been written. They are also the most important words that have ever been recorded in all of human history. Today’s gospel is the very foundation of Christianity as we know it. Everything we believe about Jesus Christ begins at this exact moment in time, in today’s gospel.
Without Christ’s resurrection from the dead, his life would have no meaning. Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead validated everything he said and did during his life, but most importantly, it was validation that he really is the son of God. No other human being has ever come back to life after being dead for three days.
Can you picture Mary Magdalene seeing the two angels, and then Jesus Christ risen from the dead? She didn’t just see Jesus, she actually touched him. It was probably an impulsive act that she didn’t even think about beforehand. At the sound of the Lord’s voice she probably turned to answer him and spontaneously tried to hug him or touch him.
Mary Magdalene had been crying her eyes out over Jesus’s death and missing body, but can you imagine her utter amazement and joy to see Jesus himself standing right in front of her? Perhaps Jesus had only been resurrected from the dead for a very short time when Mary saw him though, because Jesus told her not to hold on to him. However, remember when Jesus later on told Thomas to touch the wounds in his hands and side just so he could prove that he had a real body? Today’s gospel reading is the first recorded moments of Jesus Christ’s resurrection though and he didn’t seem to feel entirely comfortable with his newly risen body.
What Jesus said next, assures us of our own salvation and eternal life one day too. Jesus told Mary to, “go to my brothers and tell them, I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Mary Magdalene addressed Jesus as “Rabbouni” (teacher). But Jesus did not address his disciples in a formal manner. He called them his brothers, and that his Father was their Father too. Jesus seems to have dispensed with formalities and lovingly called his disciples his brothers. They were like a family to him.
Jesus did say once, that his brothers and sisters were those who did his Father’s will. We are Jesus’s brothers and sisters too, as long as we remain in His friendship. Everyone who reads this reflection today is part of our Catholic family too. The Holy Spirit binds us together as one family and it doesn’t matter where you live. We are still your brothers and sisters in Christ.
And that is where the first reading becomes more relevant today. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended on all of Jesus’s disciples. They were so filled with the Spirit that three thousand people were converted to the faith in a single day and were baptized. There had never been anything like this occur in human history before, or since, the day of Pentecost. But, this would not have occurred except for the Holy Spirit that descended upon the hearts of the Jewish people that day.
The scriptures say that when the Jewish people realized they had crucified Jesus, who really was the son of God and an innocent man, they were cut to the heart. Their grief was so deep. They could not undo their actions. There was nothing they could do to make it right again and they were pretty tore up about it. Their situation seemed pretty hopeless when they first realized their guilt.
When Mary was crying outside of Christ’s tomb, things looked pretty hopeless to her too. She thought the Lord Jesus was gone for good and someone had even stolen his body. Her heart was deeply broken as well.
Jesus healed both of these hopeless situations though. There is no sin that is so bad that Jesus can’t forgive it (except blasphemy), and there is no situation that is so hopeless that it can’t be healed by him either. Jesus can bring hope into the darkest circumstances of our lives, if we let him. No one should ever live with despair that their situation can never improve, because that just isn’t the case if we let Jesus accompany us through all our trials and sufferings. At the very least, he can lighten the load we carry, with his grace.
The next time we have a heavy heart, we should pray about it and then trust that the Lord Jesus has the power to heal it.
Daily Mass Readings:
Acts 2: 36-41 / Psalm 33: 4-5, 18-20, 22 / John 20: 11-18
