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Christ appears to Mary Magdalene
Pietro da Cortona
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Dearest brothers and sisters in
Christ,
I would like to send to each of
you a warm greeting of grace and peace in the Risen Christ.
Christ is risen! He who freely
accepted the Cross and offered his life to rescue us from the shadow of death
has shown us his victory. The tomb has ceded its seal, and the Living One has
come forth. Mary Magdalene saw a gardener, but the Lord chose to manifest
himself plainly to her, who at that moment and in her person represented the
whole Church. The Lord gave her clear eyes to discern his true stature, and he
himself left behind the figure of a laborer. The Magdalene no longer saw him as
just another among so many, she recognized her Lord.
If before we knew Christ by purely human criteria (2 Cor 5,16),
as one among so many others, it was because God willed to identify himself with
us completely. "Behold, the Man", Pontius Pilate had said. He was
condemned and finally crucified like one among so many who in this world have
lived the cruelty of an unjust judgment handed down without mercy. It was
necessary that his lordship be manifested precisely after having consolidated
his solidarity with those most denigrated in this world. In this way his
victory over death was shown to be a victory for all peoples.
Death sought to swallow the Lord
Jesus, and death met its end when it sensed in its insides that this
"Behold, the Man" was the Son of God in person. He rose on the
third day, showing that the grace that had descended to the deepest parts of
our existence had as its purpose the raising of us to the heights of new life.
Like the seed that falls to the ground,
dies, and produces much fruit (Jn 12,24), the Risen One desires that the
fruit of his new life be multiplied in us.
The victory of Christ over the
ancient enemy was not simply a triumph over death identified with the end of
mortal life. The Cross of Christ was the instrument of his death, but it was
also a symbol of an entire kingdom where lies, cruelty and lack of conscience
kills and discards the defenseless in this world. That same Cross becomes a
symbol of the love of God because through the work of Jesus on it, the reign of
death reaches its end. In Christ Risen life gains new strength, and extends its
reign in each one who, like Mary Magdalene, seeks to embrace the One who
ascends to the Father. If it still does not pertain to us to touch him, it is
so that we might follow in pursuit of him in his transit to the Father.
To live in the resurrection of
Christ does not simply mean that we believe that we will have life after we
die, rather it means much more. It means living now in the truth of life. We
follow the Risen One in his transit to the Father precisely by loving the
truth, practicing mercy, and treating everyone with the respect they deserve as
beloved reflections of the divine majesty.
To live in the resurrection means
we can no longer judge one another by the age-old purely human criteria, which in reality are the criteria of death. And so we must stand in defense of the poor
and the defenseless who so often are discarded and mistreated in order to
smooth the way for the global economy. Global structures ought to serve the
good all. And we must say to our leaders that the rhetoric and politics of contempt
directed against immigrants and refugees are plainly an affront to human
dignity; we must defend the many innocents who seek to escape from cruelties
and atrocities that the governments of the world themselves do not want to
admit exist. And we must not cease unmasking the lie that says the unborn are
not our little sisters and brothers. In the silence of the womb they appeal to
us to recognize their dignity and their right to live.
Let us go then, in pursuit of the
Risen Christ, laboring so that the grace of the resurrection might be extended through
the whole world, and that it be a true Reign of Life. I ask the Risen Lord to
give us all the strength to live the grace of his victory, and that he grant to
all of us the benediction of his peace and protection during these holy days.
+Daniel E. Flores
Bishop of Brownsville
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