Alleluia!

He is Risen

~~~~~*~~~~~

The Resurrection...We call it Easter Sunday.

Three women, all named Mary and close to Jesus, rose the morning after the Sabbath. They went to see, to check the grave where only 2 1/2 days before, the battered, tortured, and pierced body of their Lord had been laid. He was dead. Of that there was no doubt. Evidence points to Mary Magdalene reaching the tomb first.

There she found the large stone door rolled away, the tomb empty.

Some say Mary ran back to tell the others, some say she stayed close while others called or ran back. Hesitant to enter, she peeked inside and found two luminous beings sitting on the stone bed. The body was gone, her Jesus was gone.

St. John tells the story in this manner:

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" 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." 16 Jesus said to her, "Mary!"

- John 20:11-16

At that point, I believe that her blind grief and hot tears fell away. She recognized Jesus and her heart must have shouted: "Alleluia!...." John says that she spoke only one word: "Rabonnai"...teacher. What else was said between the Christ and his beloved Mary Magdalene? That is best left between them.

The relationship between Jesus and each of us is special, private. He knows each one of his flock individually, our hearts and minds. Sometimes he calls us to share our story, sometimes it remains priveleged, confidential.

Jesus had returned from Hades, triumphant over death and all sin. Over the next fourty days he walked with them, talked with them and breathed upon them......That, beloved, is important. Jesus, now fully man, fully God, fully Spirit...breathed his own Spirit upon them.

And that, THAT, is the next chapter of the story!