HE BENT DOWN AND SAW THE BURIAL CLOTHS THERE, BUT DID NOT GO IN

At 10,34a.37-43; Ps 117; Col 3,1-4 opp. 1Cor 5,6b-8; Jn 20,1-9
1 APRIL  – EASTER OF RESURRECTION – S
The Apostle John places at the centre of the mystery of the Resurrection of Jesus the most pure spiritual love of a woman for her Master and Lord. It is Mary of Magdala. On the first day of the week, she gets up early in the morning and goes to the sepulchre, when it is still dark and sees that the stone has been removed from the tomb. She immediately thinks of a tampering with the Lord’s tomb. At night someone entered it and stole the body. A single woman can do nothing, not even enter the sepulchre. It could be very dangerous. She leaves the place and runs to Simon Peter and the other disciple’s, the one that Jesus loved, and with very simple words tells them that the Lord was taken away from the tomb and they do not know where he was placed. Here is the truth: Jesus is not in the grave. But she did not see. She supposes it is so because of the violation of the grave. It is a truly unprecedented, inexplicable and unimaginable fact.

It is right to stop for a moment to reflect. Mary of Magdala loves the Lord, but does not believe in his resurrection. She loves the Jesus of yesterday, but she cannot love the Jesus of today. She can only embalm a body. But without the very pure faith in the resurrection, her love will only be a memory, it might never be lived in the present. This is the extraordinary beauty of our faith. When it is alive in us, the love for Jesus will never be of yesterday, never of the past, it will never become history, because faith always makes it of today, always new, always alive, always current, more and more intense and more and more strong. Those who do not want to risk that love for Jesus become a dead memory of events that took place yesterday must make every effort to found in their hearts the most complete and true faith. Since today faith is fading in many hearts, even love for Jesus is fading, indeed it has faded. It remains a cult without the living Christ and some sacraments that are celebrated as a historical habit or culture of a people. However it is fitting that it is added that when we search according to the purity of the love of yesterday, Lord Jesus, the Lord always helps us so that it becomes the living love of today, adding He Himself the truth that is still lacking in our faith. We seek and He also seeks.

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala 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.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

Peter and John do not care about Mary of Magdala. When the news is heard, they both run towards the tomb. John, the younger, arrives first. He stops, looks, but does not enter. The ancient interpreters assert that he does not enter because he awaits Peter who is the authority, the guarantor and the guardian of the faith of all. Peter enters. Giovanni also enters and sees. From the order that reigns in the sepulchre, he opens to the faith in the resurrection of Jesus. The closing words are of vital importance for us: “They had not yet understood the Scriptures, that is, that he had to rise from the dead”. These words raise the resurrection from a Christological to a theological event. If it concerns Scripture, it concerns all the Lord’s people and the whole world. With the resurrection, all the ancient prophecies on Christ the Lord are fulfilled. Jesus is the true Messiah, sent by God for Israel and for the Gentiles, for the sons of Abraham and for the children of all peoples. It is urgent to be extremely clear: Jesus is not an event that concerns Christians. It is an event that concerns all peoples, none excluded. If it concerns all peoples, it is necessary that it be announced and given to them. If Christ is of the world, he is for the salvation of the world, we cannot keep him hidden in the catacombs of our heart or our spirit.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us true missionaries of Jesus.