And yet, we are often disappointed, even on Easter, even when we are offered the promise of eternal life and salvation. We look at prayers unanswered (at least according to our standards) and a world breaking under the strain of division and human suffering, and we struggle to find joy, even when our faith tells us not to be afraid, that nothing on this earth, no matter how awful, can keep us away from what God has promised.

Wherever you find yourself today, whatever your problems and struggles, there is reason to rejoice. Jesus is not dead; he is alive. The cross was not a defeat for him, and it will not be a defeat for us. We do not always understand Jesus’ ways, and like those early disciples, we may stare at the empty tomb — or at some challenge in our own life or the larger world — and wonder, “How can this be?” But Jesus doesn’t ask us to understand; he asks us to trust that things are unfolding just as he told us they would.

If you are struggling to find Easter joy this season, imagine you are Mary Magdalene, bereft after finding the tomb empty. Upon encountering a man whom she does not recognize at first, she is called by name and realizes she is speaking to the resurrected Jesus. He tells her not to be afraid and to go and preach the good news of his resurrection to the other disciples. Her fear disappears in that moment, and she boldly proclaims: “I have seen the Lord.” We, too, are called by name.

In his beautiful book, “Life of the Beloved,” theologian Henri J.M. Nouwen writes, “What I most want to say is that when the totality of our daily lives is lived ‘from above,’ that is, as the Beloved sent into the world, then everyone we meet and everything that happens to us becomes a unique opportunity to choose for the life that cannot be conquered by death. Thus, both joy and suffering become part of the way to our spiritual fulfillment.”

Our lives will always be a mixture of both dark and light, happiness and sadness, but always hope, and possibly even joy in the face of struggle, if we follow Mary Magdalene’s example of complete trust.

As you move through this Easter season, pay attention to physical signs and symbols around you at Mass — the Paschal candle flickering, the powerful fragrance of lilies in bloom, the music bursting with Alleluias, the holy water cool against your skin, a shower of blessings in the most literal sense. It’s beautiful how we use physical things to help us bridge the distance to God, as though we are so hungry to get closer, we pull out all the stops. If only we could keep that fire of love going year-round. The Church gives us a running start by offering us the beautiful 50-day season of Easter. Soak it up. Let it feed your soul and animate the inner joy that is your spiritual birthright. After all, he is risen. Run and tell the others!

This column originally appeared in the April 9, 2025, issue of The Evangelist.

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In today’s Gospel, we are reminded that Mary of Magdala was the first to witness the Risen Lord, and the first to preach the Good News of the Resurrection. In Mary Magdalene we see a woman who never ran, never wavered; who stood at the foot of the cross when all but one of the Apostles were nowhere to be found; who stood at the tomb when the Apostles thought there was no reason to hope; who stood before the Apostles and preached the impossible to a group of men who thought she was just an emotional woman having a hallucination.

In Mary Magdalene we see utter love and devotion in the face of utter doubt and betrayal; we see bold and wild faith in the face of cowering fear and logic. Mary of Magdala is so often overlooked or, worse, derided and yet she went on to become the Apostles to the Apostles, preaching the Good News to those who would go on to preach it to others. That is a true disciple. Would the Good News ever have made it to the rest of the world if not for this woman of courage and conviction?

We pray today for the kind of bold and wild faith that will move our hearts to act even when our heads tell us to fear. We pray for the kind devotion and love that will transforms our lives from the inside out and inspire us to preach with our very lives even if we cannot preach with our words. We pray to recognize Jesus standing before us in the garden of our lives.

When we are wavering, when we are doubting, when we want to weep, let us look to Mary Magdalene for the strength to hold firm and to speak truth.

St. Mary Magdalene, pray for us. And may the Risen Lord fill us with new life and light to sustain us in the days and months ahead.

The Lord is Risen, alleluia, alleluia.

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St. Mary Magdalene has a feast! A new addition to the Church’s liturgical calendar as of only last year, our first reaction to the celebration might be, “What took them so long?” How is it possible that the “Apostle to the Apostles” was last in line when it came to official recognition of key witnesses to the resurrection? It’s a good question, because clearly Jesus Christ saw fit to put Mary Magdalene first. While the others were locked away in fear, she was at the tomb looking for the Lord, and she was not disappointed. Shocked? Certainly. Confused? At first. But disappointed? Never. Because she trusted in the Lord from day one and did not waver. Not once.

Poor Mary Magdalene has the reputation as the bad girl of Christian Scripture. Our image of her is plagued by our human attempts to express her failings, wrongly casting her at various times throughout Church history as the woman caught in adultery (John 8) and as the penitent woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and dried them with her hair (Luke 7). Why do those story lines define Mary Magdalene when the heart of her story lies in her faithfulness, not in her sinfulness?

Lutheran pastor and author Nadia Bolz-Weber describes Mary Magdalene as “the patron saint of just showing up.” That is the part of Mary Magdalene’s story that is critical to us.

From the moment Jesus cured Mary and cast out the demons that haunted her (Luke 8:2), she turned her life over to him completely. She followed him—literally and spiritually. She was there at the cross, watching the suffering, never giving a second thought to her own welfare and safety. She was there at the empty tomb—looking, searching, following always.

“Woman, why are you weeping?” asks the mysterious gardener. And then Jesus speaks her name and she recognizes him, not because of some sort of magic trick, a spiritual sleight of hand, but because she believed so completely that she could hear his voice speaking to her heart. Immediately, she went and announced it to the disciples: “I have seen the Lord,” again not fearing for her own reputation upon saying the impossible, the unimaginable. Because she lived for him not for herself.

When Pope Francis announced that the memorial of Mary Magdalene would be elevated to the level of feast (along with the rest of the apostles) he called her a “true and authentic evangelizer” and said that her tears at the empty tomb can serve as a reminder to all of us that “sometimes in our lives, tears are the lenses we need to see Jesus.”

Mary Magdalene knew darkness and doubt, she knew what it meant to be bound by infirmity and what it meant to be healed and loved unconditionally by God. In that transformation she was reborn.

Each one of us is given the same opportunity, the same mercy, the same unearned gift of salvation. Today Mary Magdalene reminds us that we do not need to be perfect; we only need to be faithful.

Run, and tell the others.

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