When’s “My” Easter Sunday?

Easter Sunday was a joyous occasion for me and my family this year, but I knew a lot of people who did not have that experience due to life circumstances that had caused them great suffering. A family who had lost a child in a car accident, a friend who had no where to go but a battered women’s shelter, and another friend whose husband had announced last Christmas he was leaving her after 18 years of marriage, all experiencing tremendous suffering. During the months that ensued and the progression of Lent, they all struggled to come to terms with their losses, and wondered when their Easter Sunday would arrive.

This caused me to reflect on John’s gospel account of the resurrection, one that I love because none of the other gospel writers include the brief, but intimate conversation between Jesus and Mary Magdalene in their accounts. Jesus stood in the garden with Mary Magdalene and tenderly asked her “Why do you weep? She did not recognize him until he said her name. Mary. Her eyes were opened as she recognized him and was filled with joy.

As someone who has been through a divorce and have traveled the long road to healing, it’s so easy to relate to Mary in this gospel scene. It’s easy to believe that because you’ve lost so much and been hurt so deeply that it would be impossible to be happy again, to experience real joy again, so you just resign yourself to the idea that the future will only be mediocre at best. This is what Mary Magdalene was experiencing in my opinion; a sort of resignation to the fact that her beloved was gone and nothing could change that, so the least she could do was find the body and lay it to rest. “Sir, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him.”

Another parallel here between the Resurrection and suffering… Jesus does not immediately reveal himself. He could see her tears and hear her sobs, but he waited to see if she recognized him. You might say he hid himself from her to see what she would do or how she would react. When we suffer, we often experience something similar, as if God is hiding from us, too. He’s silent. And it makes us weep because we need him.

I think he does this on purpose so we will search for him.

Suffering in this world will always partly be a mystery to us, but this is one lesson I believe is important to take away from the experience; that God hides himself so in our misery, we will go looking for him and in the process, draw nearer to him. And when we find him, he asks, Why are you weeping?

In his book, The Gift of Faith, Father Tadeusz Dajczer writes:

It was because a man lay on the ground that a Samaritan picked him up… So he who has not fallen, will never be picked up, and he who is not dirty, will never be wiped clean (p. 58).

It is through our suffering that we will experience God’s healing touch, his merciful love, and a peace we would not have been able to know through any other means.

In this gospel reading, Jesus calls Mary’s name and she upon her recognition of him, she is filled with joy. You’re probably wondering when that will happen for you. It will happen, I promise you, it will happen but in God’s perfect timing. Jesus didn’t rise immediately after his death, it took three days—when the time was right. He appeared to Mary, but allowed her to mourn him for three days. He appeared when the time was right. You will feel his presence again at just the right time. This is what he does, he waits to see if we will come to him. He waits to help us build the virtues of patience, perseverance, obedience, faith, trust. Don’t give in to discouragement because his timing is perfect and when he shows up, you will be filled with joy.