Easter Vigil

My brothers and sisters,
One day I asked Jesus why, after his resurrection, did he present himself alive for the first time to a woman? I asked this not because I am a man and I am jealous to the woman. No I am not. I asked Jesus this because I know a little about Jewish traditional customs: that a woman cannot be a witness. If there is a case in court and the witness is a woman, so her testimony is not valid, her witness has no value. This was the custom in Jesus time. Jesus knew this and Jesus knew that his resurrection must be proclaimed to everybody, especially to his disciples. So why did he appear to Mary Magdalene for the first time? Not to Peter or other disciple? Jesus gave me no answer. So I was thinking of several possible answers.
First, maybe Jesus knew that women have a special talent to transfer news, such as rumor or gossip. Excuse me! I’m talking about women in Indonesia that I know. I don’t know how about you here. Maybe you are different. In Indonesia people says: If two women see each other, there will be a market, very noisy. They cannot keep news for themselves, especially great news. And Jesus wanted to use this talent to spread his great news of resurrection. Maybe!
The second possibility, it might be because Jesus loves women more than men. But I thought that Jesus loves all mankind. In the Bible we know that John was the one that Jesus loved. So I didn’t believe this was the answer.
The third possibility is: maybe women love Jesus more than men do. I can see in many churches that there are more women than men, not because of the man-priest! Maybe Mary Magdalene loved Jesus more than the eleven apostles? Maybe!
The last possibility that I found is: we know that Jesus was raised from the dead very early in the morning. And in my experience I know my mother is the first person who wakes up early in the morning in my family. And my mother is a woman too. So woman used to wake up when the day is still dark. That’s why a woman had the honor to find Jesus risen from the dead for the first time. But this answer is not very scientific. So I surrendered to Jesus. Whatever his choice, he appeared to a man or to a woman, that was His choice. That was the fact that had happened. Not a story made up by His apostles or by any other man, the fact that Jesus was truly raised. The most important thing for us is Jesus has really been raised. He is alive. If Jesus has not been raised, then empty is our preaching, said St. Paul and empty too your faith, and there is no sense for me to be a priest (or to be a religious), and there is no sense as well for me to come here, to be with you to celebrate this Eucharist. And the most pitiable of all if Jesus has not been raised is we still live in darkness, we have not yet been saved. But fortunately Jesus is really alive. Alleluia!
What does it mean for each of us? For me, the resurrection of Jesus means that I am not a stupid man who leaves the normal life for something in vain to follow Him. The resurrection of Jesus makes me aware of the reason for what I was born, why I live and for what aim I’ll die. It means that my life has a meaning and an aim in Lord Jesus. Our faith in Jesus’ resurrection gives us hope that our life is not only in this world, that the suffering in this world is not the end of all.
I know an old man who had been lying in bed for a couple of months because of his grave terminal illness. One day I visited him. He posed me a question that needed not my answer: Father, he said, do you know why the Lord Jesus let me lie like this for months? Why? I asked him. To let me look upward always! He said. He saw his suffering as a way from God to help him to think of God and eternal life with God, to prepare his new life with the Lord Jesus in heaven. In this man’s faith I could see the resurrection, while he was still in this world.
I know a mother who lost her two only sons in one accident, hit by a truck and the driver was drunk. She was really in deep grief, but at last she could say: the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, as Job said. In this suffering mother I saw: there is resurrection.
There is another mother who was left by her husband. Her husband ran to another woman. And she had to work hard to take care and to raise her three children. One day he told me that if her husband wants to return back, she could accept him. In her forgiveness I can see the resurrection.
You see, my brothers and sisters, where there are faith, hope and love we can find the resurrection of Christ Jesus. Jesus is alive in us! The resurrection is not a matter of the past but it is now, in you and in me, in our family. Let us make it really present so that our life will be the light for others. Happy Easter! Amen