Living the Logic of Love: The World Needs Witnesses of the Resurrection

I write from Washington DC, a city reeling in the midst of political angst and burdened by economic fears. It can be seen in the carriage of people and felt in the heaviness which has grasped the city in this July heat wave. I have seen this sadness in the face of many believers, even though we are witnesses of the Resurrection and called to empty the tombs of those who have lost hope and do not know where to find it.

P>WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic online) - I write from Washington DC, a city reeling in the midst of political angst and burdened by economic fears. It can be seen in the carriage of people and felt in the heaviness which has grasped the city in this July heat wave. There is sadness in the face of so many. Unfortunately, I have seen this sadness in the face of many believers as well, even though we are witnesses of the Resurrection and called to empty the tombs of those who have lost hope and do not know where to find it.

Today in the Liturgical calendar we commemorate a woman who teaches us a different way to live, Mary of Magdala. She was one of the group of women who followed the Lord Jesus and cared for his needs during His earthly ministry. She was present when he died and, according to Mark's account, she was the first to see the Risen Lord. (Mk 16:9)

The Gospel of today's Mass recounts her transformational encounter with the Resurrected Jesus, "Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken my Lord, and I don't know where they laid him."

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" She thought it was the gardener and said to him, "Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him."

Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni," which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and then reported what he told her."

A passage from a homily preached by St Gregory the Great in the Office of Readings reminds us of "the intensity of love burning in the heart of the woman who did not leave the tomb, although the disciples did not go away. She continued to seek the One she had failed to find. She sought for Him in tears and, inflamed with the fire of love".
And see Him she did. This woman became a "witness to the Resurrection" and took her place alongside of those who turn the world upside down with their message.

"Why are you weeping", the Master asked. In that encounter Mary's eyes were opened and the clarity needed to see the whole world differently was conferred upon her. Jesus spoke her name "Mary" and she responded for the rest of eternity. That very same encounter is available to each one of us who bear His name.

Following the Celebration of the Easter Triduum this year Pope Benedict XVI traveled to Castelgandolfo for a brief rest. On Wednesday, April 27, 2011 he traveled back to the Vatican where he greeted over 35,000 pilgrims at his Wednesday General Audience. He continued his series of teachings on the implications of the Resurrection of Jesus, underscoring the truth that Easter is more than a day; it is a way of living our lives differently in the Risen Jesus Christ.

The Holy Father told the pilgrims "Christ resurrected from the dead is the foundation of our faith that radiates throughout the Church's liturgy, giving it content and meaning ... Christ's resurrection is the door to a new life that is no longer subjected to the termination of time, a life immersed in the eternity of God. With Jesus' resurrection begins a new condition of human being, which illuminates and transforms our daily path and opens a qualitatively new and different future for all humanity.

"In his Epistle to the Colossians, St. Paul says 'If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth'". However, Benedict XVI emphasized, the apostle "is far from inviting Christians, any of us, to shun the world in which God has placed us. It is true that we are citizens of another 'city', our true home, but the path toward this goal must be traversed every day in this land. To participate, from this moment, in the life of the resurrected Christ, we must live as new men and women in this world, at the heart of this earthly city".

"This is the path to transform not only ourselves but also to transform the world, to give the city a new face that favors the development of humankind and society within the logic of solidarity, goodness, and profound respect for the dignity proper to each ... Easter offers the newness of a profound and complete passage from a life subject to the slavery of sin to a life of freedom, inspired by love, the force that breaks down barriers and builds new harmony in our hearts and in our relationships with others and with things".

Every Christian, just as every community, "that lives the experience of this passage to the Resurrection, cannot help but be new leaven in the world giving themselves without reserve to the most urgent and just causes, as seen by the witness of the saints in every age and place. The expectations of our time are also great: believing firmly that the resurrection of Christ has renewed humankind without separating it from the world in which it builds its history, we Christians must be the radiant witnesses of Easter's new path."Easter is, therefore, a gift that must be welcomed in faith more deeply each time, to work in any situation with the grace of Christ, according to the logic of God, the logic of love".

Mary of Magdala demonstrates this logic of love and invites us to live differently in this hour of great need. We are also witnesses of the Resurrection. Death was dealt a fatal blow at the wounded but glorified hands of the Warrior of love. Death could not contain the One who poured Himself out in Love. The light flooded that dark cave and continues to fill the world with hope. The debt was paid, the last enemy death was defeated, hell was conquered, the captives liberated, and the logic of love triumphed! Jesus Christ is Alive and all those who stand at the Altar of the Cross, believing in His promise, shall live forever in Him.

There is a glorified Resurrected Savior now seated at the right hand of the Father, holding the place He has prepared for each of us. His wounds are glorified now, beautiful, streaming the light of grace upon an earth being reborn, revealing the depth of His love and the Hope that springs eternal. Through taking on our very humanity, He did for us what we could never have done for ourselves. He "who knew no sin" walked in the perfect obedience of the Son and bridged the gap between the Father and the sons and daughters who had rejected His invitation to communion, through the offering of His own Body on the altar of the Cross.

Through His passion, obedience unto death, and Resurrection, He welcomed us into the very inner life of the Trinity. In Him we now make our home in God. In His sacred humanity He transforms the entire human experience. He invites us to live differently and shows us the path to a fullness of life now and eternal glory in the new world to come. He opened eternity to all who were bound by the chains of time. He clothed in glorious freedom those once wrapped in the grave clothes of death. He gave purpose to the sheep who had wandered aimlessly in empty self pursuits.

The whole world, created through Him, is now re-created in Him. We can see our lives differently as we open ourselves to His Spirit and allow Him to replace our finite vision with the eyes of eternal perspective. Our feet are now shod with the hope of the Good News. His redemptive mission continues through us to a world waiting to be born anew. He walks through time in His Body on earth, His church; the world reconciled and invites all men and women to follow Him.

We find the purpose of eternity revealed in the temporal realities of every today. The real "stuff" of our mundane daily lives becomes the ingredients of our own sanctification; the materials out of which the new creation is fashioned anew around us. The materials have not changed; we have, because He lives now in us and we live in Him. There is nothing we face alone, no tomorrow that is not redeemed and made new in the timeless One, who, out of endless, eternal, unquenchable love, came into time to redeem and transform it.

Time unfolds into eternity in Him who has entered time and transformed it by His life, death and Resurrection. That Glorious Day, understood by the Church as the first day of the new creation, that Day that the early Christians called the "Eighth Day"; is now upon us. It is the portal to eternity. He is the firstborn, the first-fruits of a new creation and is making all things new now, within us and around us.

The ground from which God formed the first Adam, the ground upon which Jeus the Incarnate Word walked and into which they placed His sacred, lifeless Body, opened wide for the New Adam; it could not contain Him. He Rose victorious from the dead! "Be not afraid" He now cries out causing the stones to burst forth in our own lives. "Be gone" He commands as he shines the light that dispels all the darkness! "Now since the children share in blood and flesh, he likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life. (Hebrews 2:14-15)".

Through sin, death came into the world, and now through the Sinless One it is vanquished. No longer an enemy, death becomes a friend, an ally, to those who live their lives in the One who has been raised from the dead. No longer an end, it becomes a new beginning for all who hide their lives in His wounded side and live their lives forever joined to Him. Nothing can separate us from that Love incarnated in the Crucified, Risen Son of the True and Living God.

When we embrace the implications of the empty tomb we can begin to live in eternity, beginning now. We can live that logic of love by choosing daily to live in the grace of the encounter and hear the Lord call our name. We act as though we really believe that He holds the future - our future and the future of this whole world that He still loves- in those wounded, glorified hands.

The Resurrection is a lens, a "hermeneutic" through which we view everything. Even suffering and loss have beauty and irreplaceable value - redemptive, life transforming value- when we choose to follow the One who has been raised.

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In the words of the Successor of Peter, "Easter is, therefore, a gift that must be welcomed in faith more deeply each time, to work in any situation with the grace of Christ, according to the logic of God, the logic of love". What the world needs most - witnesses of the Resurrection.We must be those witnesses in this hour of need.

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