Mary!

Sisters and brothers in Christ, today is the feast of Saint Magdalene, who was the first of Jesus' followers to announce that He is risen on that first Easter Sunday.

In Mary Magdalene, we encounter a loving and merciful God who forgives us, as he forgave her and freed her of the demons in her life. Also in Mary Magdalene, we realize the desires of our own hearts for God's presence in our lives. And when we do not feel His presence in our lives, there is an emptiness in our hearts, and we weep like she wept when she found the tomb empty.

Like Mary, we search this world for that deep yearning of our heart. . . "I will rise then and go about the city; in the streets and crossings I will seek Him whom my heart loves" (from the Song of Songs, today's first reading). However, we are never truly fulfilled until we find our rest in our Lord and our God.

Thankfully, when we cry out to God, as Mary cried out for Him, Jesus comes to us, consoles us, and assures us that He is always with us - in our joys and our pains, in good times and in bad times, in sickness and in health - until our death, when we are united with Him in eternal paradise.

May we always see our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and trust that He is and will always be there for us, calling us by name.

. . .

Gospel of the Day

On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” 

Mary 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 Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then reported what he told her.