Easter Sunday – Cycle B

Reflecting on John 20: 1-9

This might be the most uneasy Easter I’ve ever experienced. The weather is so weird. School shootings now occur at the rate of one a week. Worse, it seems like we, like the frog in the water, are adapting, adapting, adapting, until all of a sudden we are trapped in a boiling cauldron out of which there is no escape.

If there is an image that lifts me up right now it’s this: Mary Magdalene RAN to tell the others that Jesus was not in the tomb. Picture that. We don’t know how old she was. She could have been a teenager. I’ll bet she was.

We’ve all seen the images of teenagers running, running for their lives out of schools that are under siege. We’ve seen them filing out of hiding places, arms on the shoulders of the student ahead of them, with watchful, armed police searching for the shooter in their midst.

And, God help us, we’ve seen their terrified, grateful parents running towards them, arms outstretched to receive their babies, overjoyed that they were spared, overcome with grief for the parents who were not.

Those are our Good Friday images. But let this Easter image work in you. Mary Magdalene RAN from the tomb. She RAN to find Peter. She is still RUNNING.

This young woman, who stood bravely at the cross and was the first witness to the resurrection, is RUNNING as hard as she can in your direction, crying The tomb is empty! RUN with me! RUN to change the hearts of those who will not see Him! RUN to change the minds of those who will not speak for Him!

RUN, ye faithful ones. RUN.

Are you willing to RUN to proclaim the resurrection?

Kathy McGovern ©2018

Easter - Cycle B