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The Risen Christ appears to Mary Magdalene
C. We adore you, Christ, and we bless you.
T. For with your Easter you have given life to the world.
1L From the Gospel according to John
Mary stood crying outside the tomb. While she was still crying, she bent over and looked in the tomb and saw two angels there dressed in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head and the other at the feet. "Woman, why are you crying?" they asked her. She answered, "They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him!" Then she turned around and saw Jesus standing there; but she did not know that it was Jesus. "Woman, why are you crying?" Jesus asked her. "Who is it that you are looking for?" She thought he was the gardener, so she said to him, "If you took him away, sir, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned toward him and said in Hebrew, "RABBUNI'!", which means "Teacher". "Do not hold on to me," Jesus told her, "because I have not yet gone back up to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am returning to him who is my Father and their Father, my God and their God." So Mary Magdalene went and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and related to them what he had told her.
2L. A name, a face, a rush
In the center is a woman with her tenacity of love. Mary of Magdala resists near the empty tomb. It doesn't matter if her Teacher is not there. The important thing is that the tomb had held him in its womb, becoming almost a relic of his. And then she hopes to once again see the adored body even if a corpse. And Jesus rewards her. He reveals himself to her. He calls her by name: Maria! And the woman's heart is about to burst with joy.
It's all about continuing to search God even in the hour of doubt, even when the sun goes down, when the journey is unbearable. And it is day at once.
And it is day at once. And you hear yourself being called. He pronounces your name, your name: you feel touched by God. He is there.
Youth is a time of tenacious love. You wait for that special person to pronounce your name, with that unique tone.
And with the name, a face interwoven with light.
Jesus risen is beside you, with the young face of a tortured thirty-year-old. The young face of a living and victorious person. He says: "Go to your travel companions and announce that Christ is alive. And he wants us alive."
He says it to all of today's youth, especially to today's young women that see in Jesus the one who first gave back to women, who had been humiliated for centuries, a voice, a dignity, and the ability to speak out.
Femininity is a mine of sensitivity, creativity and offering.Today it is potential hope for an Easter: from the world of bitterness to the world of tenderness, inaugurated by the Risen. He lets a woman hold tight to his feet, a woman who was immersed in a pond of tears, and now inebriated with a contagious joy.
T. Rejoice, Virgin Mother: Christ has risen. Hallelujah!
C. Let us pray. Jesus Risen, you call me because you love me. In my daily space I can recognize you the way the Magdalene did. You tell me: "Go, and announce to my brothers". Help me go through the streets of the world, in my family, in school, in the office, in the factory, in the many environments of free time, to absolve to the great consignment of the announcement of life.
T. Amen.
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