An angel inside the tomb says to the holy women: "Do not be afraid, are you looking for Jesus the Nazarene, the crucified one? He is risen. He is not here"(Mk 16:6). For fear of an angel, perhaps this same angel, the soldiers guarding the tomb "..." (Mk 16:6).trembled with fear and were as good as dead" (Mt 28:4). But that is the difference: the soldiers were blocking access to Jesus, the women were trying to reach him. And that is why the angel says: "Do not be afraid. You are looking for Jesus". Do not be afraid because you seek Jesus. If we seek Jesus, we should not be afraid of anything or anyone.
Let the mighty of the world be afraid, let the armies and soldiers be afraid, but not us, poor and weak believers, but believers nonetheless. God knows our heart, and even, to a certain extent, the angels in heaven know it: "God knows our heart.You are looking for Jesus". They know it. So today, and always, we have nothing to fear and everything to celebrate. We need not be afraid of the world powers, nor of the problems of society or of our own lives and families, we need not even be afraid of our sins and weaknesses, as long as we seek Jesus. He will come to us and our fear will turn to joy.
Precisely because these women were looking for Jesus, he came to them. "Suddenly Jesus met them and said to them, 'Rejoice!"(Mt 28:9). When we seek Jesus, he seeks us, although in a certain sense it is the other way around. Jesus always takes the initiative: he seeks us more than we seek him.
The angel had said: "Look at the site where they put it". Now it is empty, there is no one. The power of darkness had its moment, but its power is gone. Evil has faded into nothingness, but women can lay hold of the royal feet of Jesus. "They approached him, embraced his feet and prostrated themselves before him."(Mt 28:9). What has substance, true reality, is the real-and risen-person of Jesus Christ, God made man for our salvation.
The women do what little they can, but with great love. Later we are told that they fled out of fear (Mk 16:8). But at least one of them, Mary Magdalene, ran to tell the apostles (Jn 20:1 ff). The sequence of events is a bit vague and there is understandable confusion: it was literally the most amazing event in history. But the poor and fragile women prepare the way to the Resurrection, just as 33 years earlier the humble handmaid had opened the door to the Incarnation. When women are willing to do what little they can with love, God acts in history.
The homily on the readings of Easter Sunday
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaA short one-minute reflection for these Sunday readings.
