Women announce Easter: He goes before us
We share this reflection from the vicar basic of the diocese, Tomás Durán, wherein he highlights that girls, the primary witnesses of the resurrection, are despatched to set the neighborhood on the trail to the encounter with the Lord. Let us stay Easter with pleasure and be witnesses of this new life
On Jesus’ journey a gaggle of ladies accompanied him (Lk 8:2-3), they usually have been those who stayed on the cross, with out abandoning him, “watching” from afar (Mt 27:53-56). Now, “at dawn on the first day of the week,” they method “see” the tomb They have had “eyes to see” their manner by means of Galilee and have understood it, not just like the crowds who don’t see (Cf. Mt 13,13-15); They have heard that he was going to offer his life and be resurrected (Mt 17:22-23). They have been devoted witnesses of his crucifixion and now come to await his resurrection. They are a mannequin of discipleship on the trail within the footsteps of the Master. “The decisive word that Christianity addresses to the world is specifically a message from women… They are capable and worthy of seeing and making visible the victory of life over death” (E. Drewermann) (Cf. Nuria Calduch-Benages, The fragrance of the Gospel. Jesus meets the ladies. Page 95. Divine Word. 2010).
“And suddenly the earth shook, for an Angel of the Lord, coming down from heaven… rolled away the stone from the tomb and sat on it.”. The political and army powers, the non secular elites, had sealed the tomb and positioned a guard over it. The Angel, who comes from God, “Lightning-like and dressed in white”dismantles in a second the complete army equipment of the “sentinels that tremble with fear.” “And he sits on the stone of the tomb,” in a gesture of triumph. The intervention of the Father, as described on this textual content from Saint Matthew, renders the power of this world ineffective, simply as someday “Drowned the Egyptian army in the sea” (Ex 14,21-31). “God casts down the powerful from their thrones and exalts the humble.” (Lk 1:52), this Easter music that’s the Magnificat tells us, on the lips of Mary.
The Angel speaks to the ladies: “Do not be afraid. Jesus, the crucified one, whom you seek, is not here. He has been resurrected.” The textual content is within the passive: “He has been resurrected.” It is the Father who has raised him from the grave and loss of life and has given him life. It is a primary announcement that runs by means of the primary hour of evangelization: Jesus, “constituted Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead.” (Rom 1:4). “He is risen, as He had said”the Angel reminds them. This is the ultimate confession of the gospel: the Father has raised his Son, he has been raised from the useless. “See the place where he lay.”. “He was buried and rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures” (1Cor 15:4), says Saint Paul within the oldest creed.
Women develop into the primary to “see” the expertise of the resurrection of Jesus. These three ladies are the primary listeners and recipients of the announcement of the resurrection. And, much more, they develop into the first envoys and missionaries: “Go quickly and tell the disciples: He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him.” The male disciples, who had fled and left Jesus alone (Mt 26:56), are those to whom they’re despatched. And it is going to be within the mission, alongside the roads of the periphery of the world, in Galilee, not within the political middle resembling Jerusalem, “where it will be seen” (Cf. W. Carren, Matthew and the marginsp. 769. Divine Word, 2007). It is completely different from the prophecies, the place all individuals have been invited to stroll in direction of Jerusalem; now it is going to be leaving from Jerusalem to Galilee (Mc/Mt) now “the ends of the earth” (Acts 1, 8), to the last. “The Church is created by the Holy Spirit as a Church that embraces all peoples: it embraces the complete world, it overcomes all borders of race, class, nation; it breaks down all borders and unites all males” (Cf. Benedict XVI. The liturgical 12 months preached by Benedict XVICycle A. Madrid: Ediciones BAC, 2017. web page. 276.)
This has all the time been the case all through the historical past of evangelization, and that is additionally the case now, in any “Galilee” that we journey by means of (cities, neighborhoods, cities, villages), in all moments of the mission: wherever it could be, “He goes ahead.” When we arrive, He is already there. Any mission, even whether it is in “the poorest and most humble place” (PO 15), will likely be Galilee, as a result of he travels by means of it before us (Marcelino Legido).
“They went out quickly, with fear and joy…, running, to announce it to the disciples”. “They were running… with fear and joy”unmistakable indicators of the mission of all time. And whereas they have been “running,” Jesus allowed himself to be “seen” by them, “come out to meet him”with out lightning or flashes, however like a easy pilgrim, a walker. It is an look “while they were running”, that’s, alongside the street, and never in order that they cease and imprison him (“grab him”), however to “worship him” (fall face to the bottom) and proceed working. He tells them: “Rejoice”completely different from the “do not fear” of the Angel. The easter pleasure It is the attribute of the mission of the disciples.
Beyond concern is the enjoyment that He is on the trail, forward. “Go, tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Encounter with the Lord, adoration, mission… “I will be with you until the end of the world” (Mt 28,20). Four crucial moments of the mission: assembly (He lets himself be discovered), fall face to the bottom (lengthy worship), despatched by Him, His steady presence. This “encounter”, adoration and sending occurs within the Sunday Eucharist, “weekly Easter”, “source and culmination of all evangelization” (PO 5.6).
We start the Easter of the Lord 2026. He goes to be “seen” of us within the Word that can make our hearts burn, within the breaking of bread that can open our eyes, within the poor —mysterious presence of the resurrected pilgrim, day laborer… (Jn 20:15)—, within the circle of brothers who celebrates the excellent news of his victory and on the mission on the street, whereas “we are running.”
“Let us go to Galilee, there we will see him. He goes ahead”: with their “open and merciful hands (way), with his “hands “wounded and nailed” (cross) and with its “hands on fire” (Easter), of fireside and Holy Spirit (Marcelino Legido). Anthropology of the brand new man for postmodernity: open and merciful palms, open and wounded palms, palms on hearth with the Holy Spirit, provided to awaken religion in Him, alongside the trail of amazement of His love for us.
Happy Easter of the Lord’s Resurrection!
Tomás Durán Sánchez, vicar basic
