Out of the agonizing events of Good Friday, Easter blossoms from the tomb, not like a bursting flare of fireworks but slowly, awakening minds and hearts to the shocking revelation that Jesus, having died, is now ALIVE.
“We ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead,” Peter says. “I have seen the Lord,” says Mary.
Everything in Christianity is anchored in recognition of the resurrected Jesus, the Christ of faith.
When Mary first encounters Jesus in the garden she is still traumatized by the events surrounding his execution the day before. She is in shock, disoriented in her grief, and searching for his body which she believes to have been stolen. Her attention is focused in the past, in the scenes of his humiliation and death, in the memories of his life and her experiences with him. It’s what we all do in the face of loss as we struggle to get our bearings, wrestle with despair and collapse in the anguish of wrenched hearts, minds and lives. But when Jesus says her name, she turns from the past to the present moment and recognizes the one she has been so urgently seeking. He is standing right there before her. (more…)