I HAVE SEEN THE LORD . Go And Tell My Brothers.

GO TO MY BROTHERS AND TELL THEM

Mary Magdalene met the risen Lord outside his tomb.

He gave her a message for his apostles.

Go and tell my BROTHERS to go to Galilee,
and there they will see me.
… And say to them,
I am ascending to MY Father and YOUR Father,
to MY God and YOUR God.

Before he died on the cross, Christ had never called his apostles his brothers.

Only now— risen from the dead— only now does he call them brothers.

That is a sign that what is his in the resurrection is theirs also.

Go to my BROTHERS
and tell them…
MY Father: YOUR Father.
MY Resurrection: YOUR Resurrection.

The apostles, the brothers of the Risen Christ, have handed down in the Church the means for us to become brothers and sisters of Christ— how we may all share what belongs to Christ the Risen Son of God.

St. Peter the apostle left us the following instructions [see Acts 2:36-41].

Repent and be baptized,
every one of you…
for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is made to you and to your children
and to all those far off,
whomever the Lord our God will call.

Baptism for the forgiveness of sins is how we become brothers and sisters of the risen Son of God.

You and I who have received baptism are the brothers and sisters of the Risen Son of God.

We stand between him and the unbelieving world.

He sends us to announce him to the world.

In baptism we all receive the same mission Mary Magdalene received.

She went to the Risen Lord’s brothers, and announced to them:

I HAVE SEEN THE LORD.

By the power of baptism and the Holy Spirit, it belongs to us as much as to Mary Magdalene to say to the world: I HAVE SEEN THE LORD.

Nothing stands between the Risen Lord and those who are his brothers and sisters by faith and baptism.

Here, in the Eucharist of his real flesh and blood, we truly meet the Risen Son of God.

Because of the Eucharist, we— the baptized brothers and sisters of the Risen Son of God— we may leave this church today and announce: I HAVE SEEN THE LORD.

May our lives make that obvious to the whole world!

Turn. Love. Repeat.