Ricardo Grzona, CEO of the Ramón Pané Foundation, shares this reflection in which three figures are offered who help us to live Easter: Mary Magdalene, the Apostle Thomas, and Peter in Rome.
As we approach Easter, there are many ways of addressing the subject. Thinking of this year, many faithful will not be able to take part live in the celebrations. However, we can pray and reflect at home. Therefore, I would like to share the attitude of three personalities, who accompanied Jesus in His Passover, to invite you to meditate on them.
Mary Magdalene
According to Chapter 8 of Saint Luke’s Gospel, Mary Magdalene, a disciple and follower of Jesus, certainly heard many of Jesus’ teachings on the Resurrection. However, after having seen the Lord’s crucifixion on Good Friday, as she was present there, she let Saturday pass, a day of absolute rest for Jews, and went on the first day of the week to the Sepulcher. The four evangelists: Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:1 and John 20:1, give the following account. The women were going to the Sepulcher. “However, their sole concern when they were going to the tomb at dawn was another: would they be able to embalm His lifeless Body. This is what their loving hearts most wanted, hearts that remained faithful until death, and beyond the limits of death” (John Paul II, Urbi et Orbi, 1990).” They were anxious about who would help them to remove the stone so that they could care for Jesus’ corpse. Ironically, their great sorrow plays a trick on their memory of Jesus’ discourses on the Resurrection. We all know the outcome narrated by Saint John in Chapter 20:
- 14 “Saying this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. V. 15 Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ V. 16 Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabboni,’ (which means Teacher). V. 17Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God.’ v. 18 Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord;’ and she told them that he had said these things to her.”
It was necessary for Jesus to appear to Mary, who from that moment turned her grief into happiness and became the first to announce the Resurrection.
Thomas the Apostle
Also narrated in Chapter 20 of Saint John’s Gospel is the most important scene where Jesus entered where the disciples were.
- 24 ”Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. v. 25 So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.’ v. 26 Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said: ‘Peace be with you.’ v. 27 Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.’ v. 28 Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ v. 29 Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.’”
The Apostle Thomas’s attitude is very understandable from a very human point of view. But just like Mary Magdalene, his grief and mourning kept him blinded. I would like to invite the reader to imagine the whole scene. That Sunday they were all very sad. Thomas had to leave for some reason, but when he returned, he finds them all very joyful and, I would almost say, celebrating. He obviously thought they were hallucinating. He didn’t believe because his grief was still very intense in his heart. He was very pensive that whole week, not sharing of course in the Apostles’ conversations until Jesus arrived again and he was able to meet with the Risen One. His heart changed and he was now joyful and repentant for having allowed himself to be carried away by grief. However, thanks to Thomas’ doubt, we all receive Jesus’ blessing: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
Peter in Rome
Although this image is not in the Bible, it is highlighted in the Tradition of the Church. In the year 64, the Emperor Nero began a great persecution against Christians. Peter was in Rome, and although he had been proclaiming the Risen Jesus for over 30 years, out of fear that something might happen to him, he fled Rome on the well-known Via Appia. While fleeing he met Jesus, who was carrying the cross in the opposite direction, that is, Jesus was going to Rome. Peter recognized Him and said to him a phrase that we always quote in Latin: “Quo vadis, Domine?” (Where are you going, Lord?) To which Christ answered: “Romam vado iterum crucifigi” (“I am going to Rome to be crucified again”). Ashamed of his attitude, Peter returned to Rome to continue his ministry and eventually was martyred and crucified upside-down. Today an ancient church can be visited on the Via Appia that recalls this moment.
REFLECTION:
The three personalities have the same common denominator: they have listened directly to Jesus’ preaching. In their mind, they knew the subject of the Resurrection.
However, grief, fear, and anxiety made them lose sight of what is most important. Easter is that great, unexpected move of God that changed history. Easter is always the encounter with the Risen Christ. This encounter causes joy, complete happiness, endless joy, plenitude, and lasting peace.
I would like to ask you, with whom of the three personalities do you identify to celebrate Easter?
With Mary Magdalene who, sad, retains the grief of Good Friday and forgets what the Teacher said. What is your internal pain that robs you of peace and of encountering the Risen Jesus?
With the Apostle Thomas, who doubts what all his companions are saying, who finds it hard to believe although he sees the change in the others but does not accept the message of the Resurrection, because he too remained locked in Good Friday.
With the Apostle Peter, head of the Church, who denied the Lord three times and later was reconfirmed and spent over 30 years preaching; however, when fear overtook him, he fled and needed to encounter Jesus again.
I invite you not to let yourself be robbed of hope or peace. There is Easter, not only Good Friday. This is perhaps the penultimate step. Many of our people celebrate Good Friday a lot, perhaps identifying with Jesus’ pain, but we see less participation in the Easter Joy of Sunday of the Resurrection. I hope you are able to leave behind the things that hinder your encounter with the Risen Jesus, that you not doubt, that you not ask for explanations or miracles. The Lord is alive and He wants you alive.
Translation by Virginia M. Forrester
