Mark, Chapter 16, Verse 5-8
5 On entering the
tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe,
and they were utterly amazed.
6 He
said to them, “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He
has been raised; he is not here. Behold, the place where they laid him. 7 But go and
tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee; there you
will see him, as he told you.’” 8 Then they went out and fled from the tomb,
seized with trembling and bewilderment. They said nothing to
anyone, for they were afraid.
When
the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome
bought spices so that they might go and anoint him. They were doing an act of
mercy to clean Christ’s corpse and properly bury him. When they experienced the
power of God raising from the dead they we shocked to silence.
The Law of Victory: Jesus’ Resurrection[1]
The disciples had lost
the teacher and Lord. The Jewish leaders had silenced their opposition. The
people had lost their hope of a revolution against Rome. Even the devil thought
he had finally stopped this divine leader and brought about the abandonment of
the Gospel. What a surprise awaited that first Resurrection Sunday morning!
When Jesus rose from the dead, He gave His followers a potent hope to end every
doubt about His kingdom.
Amoris Lætitia[2] The Experiences and Challenges of Families-The Current Reality of the Family-(35-39)
As Christians, we can hardly stop advocating marriage simply to avoid countering contemporary sensibilities, or out of a desire to be fashionable or a sense of helplessness in the face of human and moral failings. We would be depriving the world of values that we can and must offer. What we need is a more responsible and generous effort to present the reasons and motivations for choosing marriage and the family, and in this way to help men and women better to respond to the grace that God offers them. We also need to be humble and realistic; acknowledging that at times the way we present our Christian beliefs and treat other people has helped contribute to today’s problematic situation. We need a healthy dose of self-criticism. This excessive idealization, especially when we have failed to inspire trust in God’s grace, has not helped to make marriage more desirable and attractive, but quite the opposite. We have been called to form consciences, not to replace them. We must be grateful that most people do value family relationships that are permanent and marked by mutual respect. We cringe at fears associated with permanent commitment, the obsession with free time, and those relationships that weigh costs and benefits for the sake of remedying loneliness, providing protection, or offering some service. We treat affective relationships the way we treat material objects and the environment: everything is disposable; everyone uses and throws away, takes and breaks, exploits and squeezes to the last drop. Then it is goodbye. Narcissism makes people incapable of looking beyond themselves, beyond their own desires and needs. Yet sooner or later, those who use others end up being used themselves, manipulated and discarded by that same mind-set.
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