Pope Francis pointed out a while ago that Mary Magdalene’s reality was changed after she washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. Looking at her life and reality through the prism of tears of regret for her sins (repentance/conversion) and then the tears of happiness for God’s pardon and love changed her forever. She had a new way of looking at life: conversion and God’s love. She began to live in a new way. Today we find Mary Magdalene in a new situation – right after the passion, death, and burial of Jesus, Mary goes to the tomb overcome with grief with that new reality of conversion and God’s love seemingly shattered. Once again tears come. I can only imagine how she must have shed tears that morning. Sometimes when we cry profusely, we cannot see at all. Everything is just a blur. Angels came to her that morning next to the tomb to announce the resurrection but initially she was not able to understand their message. Her sadness and grief blocked her. Their message did not fit into the logic of her understanding of the world, it didn’t even seem to fit into her new world of conversion and God’s love. Then Jesus comes to her, and she still does not see clearly through the tears of her grief. Her blurred vision of things made her think he was the gardener! She even tries to negotiate with him for the return of Jesus’ body. Then Jesus calls her by name, and she was able to see him. The tears of grief were changed into tears of joy. Her initial vision of personal conversion and God’s love was profoundly changed by those new tears of joy. She was able to see love and forgiveness beyond death into a new and unimaginable life. What a conversation they must have had that morning next to the tomb! Now she has a new joy – not just happiness – in the resurrection.
She immediately becomes the first evangelizer, the first to announce the resurrection, the defeat of sin and death. She simply says:
“I have seen the Lord,”
and then reported what he had told her.
This new joy in the resurrection is not to be a private or personal experience. Her joy was so explosive that she had to share and announce it. She had to repeat all the resurrected Christ said to her. We call that evangelizing, sharing our faith. As we begin the Easter season this week, let us ask ourselves if we are really Easter people full of tears of joy and if we are sharing that joy with others.
Image: https://catholicjules.net/2014/04/22/on-todays-gospel-409/