Easter Sunday: “I have seen the Master”

The Holy Women

After Sabbath, Mary Magdalene, Mary of James, and Salome bought aromas to go and embalm Jesus (Mark 16:1).

The holy women remained still on Saturday following the prescription of the law according to Saint Luke. We can imagine her impatience would have been and how much they would like the Sabbath to pass to give free rein to their righteousness. They had already bought aromas to embalm the body of Jesus as evident from the beginning of the gospel of this day.

Those women had seen that Joseph of Arimathea had spent a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes in embalming the body of Jesus, but that, although it was a lot, did not satisfy her love because love, first of all, never says enough. Secondly, it is not satisfied with the gifts others give to the loved one. They wanted to anoint Jesus themselves with their aromas. Already warned about the aromas, the evangelist said  “They left very early in the morning on the first day of the week.”: then it was Sunday.

Absorbed in Jesus, the object of their love, and thinking only of giving him the gift that they had determined, it had not occurred to them that any difficulty might arise; in the path is where they remembered that the tomb was closed with a large stone, which they couldn’t lift them because it was so heavy, so they asked themselves this question in the gospel: “Who will remove the stone that closes the tomb?”

Continue, pious women, continue, for the stone has already been removed. Who had it taken away? Today’s gospel does not say it, but the evangelist Saint Matthew tells us it with these words:

There was a great earthquake, an angel came down from heaven and approaching the tomb he removed the stone. His face was like lightning and his garment was white like snow. The guards shook and became as if dead.

The women did not know what had happened in the tomb and, despising the difficulty that had befallen them, they continued and, as today’s evangelist says, “They found the stone rolled away, which was very large.” And they entered the tomb and found a young man sitting on the right dressed in white clothes and they were scared. But he said to them:  “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him. But go and tell his disciples and Peter.”

Oh, what beautiful language! Do not be afraid!… As if I were saying to them: why should you fear you who seek Jesus, and Jesus crucified? Let those who do not seek him fear; Let those who seek him to crucify him fear; Let those who were determined that he be always in the tomb, but, you, why should you fear? Ah, you, what you seek with good desire, affection, and love, do not fear! Rejoice, because Jesus who you love so much has risen!

Mary Magdalene

Magdalene was the first to come to the Cenacle to bring the news to the apostles. It seems she did not arrive at the tomb with the other women nor did she see or hear the angel, but when she saw the open tomb she turned to warn the apostles. This explains that when she arrived at the Cenacle said these words: “They have taken the Lord from the tomb and I do not know where they have taken him.”

After this warning, she returned as if flying to the tomb. Peter and John followed. They were both running, but John ran faster than Peter and arrived first.

And having bowed he saw the linen cloths on the ground, but he did not enter. Simon came after him. Peter went in and saw the linen cloths on the ground and the shroud that had been put on the head of Jesus, not together with the other canvases but separated and folded in another place. So the other disciple who had arrived first also entered.

You have heard Saint John’s account of that episode.

The two disciples, Saint John himself continues saying, returned home; and Mary Magdalene was outside crying near the tomb. While she was crying, she leaned over to look at the tomb and saw two angels dressed in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus was placed. They said to her: Woman, why are you crying?  She answered: because they have taken my Lord from here, and I do not know where they have put him.

Oh, admirable conduct! Magdalene weeps and bends down to see the tomb, and she looks and looks again because looking at the one she loves very much is not enough when she looks for what she wants.

She loves. She saw, at last, the angels; but what did Magdalene care about the angels with their white garments and their splendor? They are not what she seeks: she seeks Jesus and the angels are not Jesus, no matter how beautiful they are. It is useless for them to treat her well and ask her with love: why are you crying? Neither the attention nor the appearance of those angelic beauties They distract from thinking about her. Other souls, fewer lovers of Jesus would have entertained themselves in contemplating those extraordinary and beautiful beings, but she does not entertain herself; she doesn’t pay attention, and she cries and searches, because her Jesus is not there.

Ah, we must truly look for Jesus like this, like Magdalene! you have to cry with sorrow for having lost Jesus and seeking him weeping in preference to everything, even the same angels no matter how beautiful they are. Yes, my Savior! That’s how we have to look for you. How can we  lose you without feeling intense and bitter pain? How not suffer desolation by not finding you? Who can ever replace you in your heart? And how can we not look for you crying?

Magdalene, as if she already sensed the proximity of the one she was looking for, turned her head and saw a man who told her:

Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for? Assuming that he is the gardener, she tells him: Lord, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him away.

Oh, how beautiful this is! I confess that I can never hear or read it without feeling deeply impressed. Sir, she tells him who believes he is a peasant, being a great lady from the country; Her love makes her treat him like this to win him over and show him the one she loves. She asks him for Jesus, but she does not name him because she cannot assume in her love that the gardener does not understand who is talking to her about her, nor does she think of Jesus as she does. Furthermore, she intends to take Jesus. How? A weak woman? Is she taking a corpse and carrying it? Yes, love is not afraid and believes she can do everything. Magdalene’s love could have carried and taken the body of Jesus because love is as strong as death, and because Jesus is the one who leads those who embrace him with love.

Jesus, finally, sees himself defeated, gives in, and reveals himself: he pronounces a single word to make himself known, but what a word! Mary! With one word everything is said. Jesus puts together in a word all the lights of revelation, all the flames of love, all the tenderness of his loving heart, He experiences all those things, He feels them in the heart of the Magdalene and that heart answers “My Master!”, and gives love, tenderness, affection, and everything that it is beautiful and holy. But that word is not enough for Magdalene, even though it is so full, nor is it enough for her to see Jesus, she wants to embrace Jesus, possess Jesus, and she throws herself at his feet and extends her arms toward his arms. But Jesus tells him “Do not touch me.”

What goes through Magdalene when she hears this? Does her love decrease? No; the ban does not decrease, but increases, and it was also proof that her love was well established and so that she no longer needed those sensible consolations. She indeed is the one favored with the first appearance, the first to whom he consoles without letting anyone defeat him in delicacy and generosity.

The Magdalene, after the vision, ran radiant with happiness to tell the disciples “I have seen the Master.”

Follow Jesus

We must seek Jesus as Mary Magdalene and the other Marys sought Him on the morning of the Resurrection. And can the occupation of life be different? Isn’t seeking Jesus seeking what our heart needs? Seeking Jesus is not the end nobler and more beautiful? Let us, then, seek Jesus like the holy women, but to find him in the joy of the Resurrection, it is necessary that, like them, we accompany him before in the bitterness of the Passion.

Only in this way can we aspire to the positive joys of the Resurrection; only that’s how it is how we can sing the Easter hallelujah happily. Hallelujah is a song of triumph, and there is no triumph without a fight.

Cheer up! The angel said to the women: “He is Risen, he is not here.” I can tell you with equal truth: “He is Risen, that is why he is here”, in his Church, here in our temples, in the sacrament to be our food, our comfort, our guide, our king.

Cheer up! There are nights of mourning and loneliness, but there are smiling dawns and hallelujahs. Cheer up! There is temporary passion, but there is eternal Easter. Cheer up! Glory to God! There’s a time of work here on earth, but it is compensated with the eternal hallelujah of heaven, which I wish for everyone. Amen.