Jesus said to her, "...go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and to your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord."
John 20:17-18
As I am writing this reflection, the ground is frozen and covered with ice and snow and my mind keeps holding on to the words of the song, The Rose: "When the night has been too lonely, And the road has been too long, And you think that love is only, For the lucky and the strong, Just remember in the winter, Far beneath the bitter snows, Lies the seed that with the sun's love, In the spring becomes the rose." For me it is "with the" Son's love, that we, like Jesus, are enabled to rise up like the rose.
To Mary Magdalene belongs the glory of being the first person to see the Risen Christ. What joy must have filled her heart – the man whom she loved and worshiped had died, and now has been raised. The Son's Love filled her heart and she announced, "I have seen the Lord." For us Christianity does not mean knowing about Jesus; it means knowing Jesus. It does not mean talking about Jesus; it means encountering Jesus. With the certainty of the experience that Jesus is alive, you and I are called also to proclaim: "I have seen the Lord." Jesus has been raised from the dead! Alleluia! Alleluia!
William H. C. Ticknor+
