Why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?

But Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping?' She said to them, 'They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.' When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?' She thought it was the gardener and said to him, 'Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.' Jesus said to her, 'Mary!' She turned and said to him in Hebrew, 'Rabbouni,' (St. John 20:11-15)

Death is not the end. In many ways, it is the beginning of true Life. Jesus approaches a mourning woman with words of intimacy. He seeks for her to share her heart. For her to share why she weeps. She weeps because of death. She weeps because she believes that the one whom she loves and seeks is gone forever. This is not the case. He is not gone. Death exists for but a moment. Now true Life takes its place. Christ was dead, but now He is risen. Her love was gone, but now He returns, and she will never lose Him again.

She does not recognize this initially. She only recognizes Him when she hears her love speak her name. It is only in hearing who she is spoken from the lips of her Love that the veil is lifted, and she sees. In her grief, she had lost sight of her own identity. She is defined by her relationship with Him, and without Him, she is nothing. Who she was died with Him. When He returns, He calls her name, and she is alive once more. She realizes that the only one who can truly call her name and who can truly speak her identity is her love. She recognizes Him. She rejoices because He is no longer gone.

This is the relationship God has with the human race. Humanity as a whole and each individual soul was created for and is defined by its relationship with God. When God is not present in the life of a soul, the soul forgets who they are. When God returns, the soul is alive again. When I sin, I push God's presence away. I die with my crucified Lord. When I invite God back through contrition, I am brought to Life again. I am resurrected with Him.

This is the mystery we celebrate at Easter. We celebrate God being taken away from us because of our sin and returning once more because of His mercy. We recognize that we lose sight of our identity when we lose sight of God, and we gain sight of it once more when He returns. We recognize that we die when He is removed from our lives and that we Live again when He returns.

Christus Resurréxit! Resurréxit Vere! Alleluia!

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