Easter Monday

It has often struck me that in all of the gospels whereas men are largely to the fore in the story of Jesus’ passion and death, it is women who are to the fore in the story of Jesus’ resurrection. Nearly all of the men in the story of Jesus’ passion and death fare badly, whereas the women in the story of Jesus’ resurrection are portrayed in a very positive light. The strong association of women with Jesus’ resurrection reminds us that so often it is women who have proven to be the guardians and protectors of life. In Matthew’s gospel, a group of women are the first to hear the good news of Easter from an angel in the tomb of Jesus, ‘He is not here, for he has been raised’. It is to these women that the risen Lord first appears, as in our gospel reading. ‘The women came up to him and, falling down before him, clasped his feet’. It is these women who are the first to be sent by the risen Lord to proclaim the Easter gospel, ‘go and tell my brothers that they must leave for Galilee; they will see me there’. All of this is happening against the background of a group of men, chief priests and soldiers, conspiring together to spread a false story about Jesus’ disciples stealing his body during the night. Today’s gospel reading might prompt to thank God for all those women who, in our own lives, have revealed the risen Lord to us in a whole variety of ways. It is time that women’s profile in the Easter story was reflected more clearly by their profile in the structures of the church. All of us as followers of the Lord, men and women, have a vital role to play in proclaiming the Easter message of the triumph of life over death. We are all called to be life-givers in some way, people who care for and protect life, the life of each other, the life of the vulnerable, the life of our common home, our environment. This mission of proclaiming the Lord of life, the God of the living, by our lives is all the more vital in a world where the taking of life has become more commonplace, as is evidenced by the shooting of that young female journalist in Derry last week. The world needs the life proclaiming ministry of the risen Lord now more than ever.

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