Dear friends,
The Easter narratives are consistent in their accounts that the women are the first group of people to whom the risen Lord appears. In these apparitions, the name of Mary Magdalene consistently appears in the four Gospels. In some cases, the appearances involve Mary, the mother of James, Joanna, and Salome. Surprisingly, there is no account of Jesus appearing to Mary, his mother. St Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises sorts out this puzzle by proposing to the retreatant that the first apparition of the risen Lord may have been to his mother. In his view, if Jesus appears to so many others, then it is presumed that he also shows himself to his mother. Ignatius thinks that this presumption is a matter of practical understanding. He quotes Jesus’ challenge to his disciples in this way: “Are even you without understanding?” (Matthew 15:16)
Based on the Easter accounts, the women do not keep the good news of the Lord’s resurrection to themselves. Their encounters with the risen Lord bring them great joy. They go in haste to proclaim to the disciples that the Lord is truly risen. They become the first evangelisers of Jesus’ triumph against sin and death even if in Luke’s account, “their story seemed like nonsense and they (the disciples) did not believe them” initially. The women are the first to confess that Jesus is alive, while others including the disciples lag behind in their belief in the risen Lord. Consequently, the women have a unique and unparalleled contribution to the birth of a believing community. For well over 2,000 years, perhaps due to patriarchy and gender bias, which are so deeply rooted in our culture and tradition, the roles of women have not been given the importance they deserve. It is a culture of exclusion that continues to dominate current thinking and ethos. Thus, the marginalisation of women continues in our world and church today.
One of the gifts of the risen Lord is communion, which is inseparable from participation in mission. Faith in the risen Lord becomes the foundation of community for the early church. It becomes the reason for the church’s being and mission. The resurrection event puts an end to the exclusion of women. It singles out their role in evangelisation. By extension, we are all one in this mission entrusted by the risen Lord. St Paul captures this gift beautifully in his Letter to the Galatians: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ.” Diversity enriches our communion, and subsequently, the latter ensures the participation of everyone in the mission. We learn all this in the stories of the risen Lord’s apparitions.
Blessed Easter to one and all!
Tony Moreno SJ
President, Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific
Easter 2022