APRIL 20TH 2025, EASTER SUNDAY (YEAR C)

What happens when you witness something that can’t be explained? Sometimes you tell others the story as you know it. Others listen and see for themselves and perhaps discover something new – or, as is the case in the reading from the Gospel of John, they will confirm what they’ve already been told. Sometimes you simply stay put because you cannot yet move. The hold of love, of connection, of mystery, asks you to wait, to open heart and mind and spirit, and to hope in faith. There is simply too much happening inside to leave. Because Mary Magdalene stayed, she heard her name spoken in a voice that told her all she needed to know. The One whom she loved more than all others was alive. And she knew it through the sound of voice – the sound of someone who knew her, who loved her. Death did not have the final say. Because she stayed, she learned the story by heart. And then she told others. It is what we are called to do. Be the voice of love. Tell the story – live the story – of an astonishing love so powerful that it stays -so that it lives within someone else and gets passed along and gets told over and over again. Live the story, tell the story – of a love that does not die.

Adapted from Living With Christ