Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies podcast where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the Word. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: The Lord be with you and with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John. Glory to you, O Lord.
On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning while it was still dark, and she saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved and told them they have taken the Lord from the tomb and we do not know where they have put him.
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first. He bent down and saw the burial clause there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him, he. He went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there and the cloth that covered his head not with the burial cloths, but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first.
And he saw and believed, for they did not yet understand the Scripture, that he had to rise from the dead. The Gospel of the Lord.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: If you were here on Good Friday, you heard me compare the Passion narrative in John's Gospel to how a Western novel is set up with heroes and villains and those who are scared or cowardly.
Well, of course, Jesus is the primary hero of the whole story.
But the other heroes that were there tended to be the people on the outside, the people that had no power, that had no ability to influence people, at least on the surface.
The Marys who stood at the cross, of course, are heroic. And Joseph of Arimathea who took Jesus body and offered it a proper burial is heroic.
But there is no hero, in my opinion, in scripture greater than Mary Magdalene, because she is often referred to as the apostle to the apostles, because she discovered that the tomb was empty.
And she's the one that went to the apostles to share the confusion and the future joy of finding the tomb empty.
Her faith that while stressed, did not break, was rewarded for being the first one there.
And her faith strengthened Peter's faith because prior to this, he was hiding somewhere in a corner, hoping nobody knew he was had anything to do with Jesus.
And her words entered into his heart and he was ready to go.
So if you ever think for even a second that the church could survive just fine without the faith and the strength and the presence of women. Read this scripture because it's central.
And Mary Magdalene's faith was quiet but ironclad.
And she knew what to do with that faith. She knew it had to be shared.
Well, each one of us assembled here recognizes and understands that joy and that hope of finding the tomb empty, the stone rolled away.
And what's asked of us is that we have that same enthusiasm to share that news with other people.
And when I say share that news, I don't mean preaching to them because rarely, if ever, in my opinion, does that work.
But love never fails.
And if we share the love of Christ, which has already been showered on us with those people we encounter, those people we deal with on a day to day basis, Jesus and the Holy Spirit will do the rest of the work.
Because the one thing I totally believe in is that love is not just contagious, but people want to know how we got it.
And that's when we can share the good news with them and change the world.
