Resurrection: A Grief Transformed

On Easter Sunday, the women, and specifically Mary Magdalene, quickly transform their grief into hopeful action: radical discipleship, evangelizing, telling the good news, and doing what Jesus asks them to do – which is to not hold onto Him, but rather carry out His mission on earth.

How many of us stay stuck in grief for days, months, if not years? Over loved ones lost, over dreams shattered, over our regrets, over our failures, or maybe even over the state of the world? Some of us stay locked in grief for a long time. The sorrow and depression stagnates us. It prevents us from taking hopeful action. We are locked in Good Friday. I know I have been there.

But in this Jubilee Year of Hope especially, are we not called to transform that grief in the ways Mary Magdalene does? Are we not called to move from Good Friday through Holy Saturday to Easter Sunday? “Death” in whatever ways that manifests itself in our life, is not the end of the story.

Resurrection may not look like we want it to. It may surprise us. For example, Mary Magdalene wanted Jesus as He used to be. Yet, Jesus had changed when He resurrected. She could no longer hold onto Him like she used to. She had to grow beyond what was to what was new and transformed. She did, and became the “apostle to the apostles.” She became the Saint she was destined to be!

There is a time for grief. There is a time for Lent and Good Friday. A time of penance, sorrow, and examination of conscience. There is a time for Holy Saturday. A time of patient, somber, and expectant waiting. But there is also a time for Resurrection Sunday and the Easter season. A time of rejoicing, hope, and new life… a time to move beyond grief, take hopeful action, open our eyes to the resurrection that manifests in our lives, and take hopeful action.

We can't become the saints we're destined to be without moving into the Resurrection season. This is where the Church is created and mobilized!

So if you’re stuck on Good Friday this Easter, I hope you can learn from these amazing women how to transform your grief, your deaths, your regrets, and whatever else has died in your life – one of the greatest lessons of the Resurrection story.