Church of the
Annunciation

7580 Clinton Street
Elma, New York 14059

716.683.5254

April 16, 2017

Easter

During Lent and now during Holy Week I have been reading: “Dorothy Day – The World will be saved by Beauty” by Kate Hennessy – Dorothy’s granddaughter. Dorothy once asked: “What did the women do after the crucifixion?” She answered the question in her column in the Catholic Worker: “While the men mourned and prayed, the women had to get on with the business of living!”

 

Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, come to the tomb at dawn. The earth quakes. An angel appears. The tomb is empty. The messenger of God calms, explains and directs the women to go tell his disciples that Jesus goes before them. You will see him in Galilee. They run fearful and overjoyed. Behold Jesus greets them: “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me.”

 

Jesus awaits them in Galilee. They are in Jerusalem and Jesus asks them to go to Galilee where they first heard him speak …where they tended their fishing nets…where they supported their families…where he called them to announce the Kingdom of God. Jesus is not asking them to go on retreat or on a pilgrimage or on a quest. Jesus is telling his sisters and brothers to go home! He awaits them there. It is a homecoming. “Galilee” is where we live, go to school, work and play. It is not an adventure or exotic land far away. The Risen & Hidden Lord reveals himself in the familiar…amid family, friends, neighbors, coworkers and students. Perhaps that is why we fail to see him. Mother Teresa would tell people who wanted to come to Calcutta to help and serve the poor to stay and love at home.

 

It is only after Jesus reveals himself in the familiar setting of Galilee does he say goodbye on a mountain in Galilee. Here he commissions his disciples to baptize all nations assuring them he will always be with them until the end of the age. Before they can announce “Jesus has been raised” on the road far away, the disciples first encounter the Risen Lord in Galilee close to home. May we see Jesus crucified and raised in persons familiar to us and carry a message of hope and healing to others. 

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