The Healing Journey

April 1, 2024

One of the most touching moments in the Gospels can be found in John’s account of the empty tomb. Mary Magdalene goes to where they laid Jesus’ body on Good Friday and finds it empty. Imagine her fear, her heartbreak, her desperation, especially after witnessing his horrific death as she stood at the foot of the Cross with the Blessed Mother and John the Apostle.

As the Gospel account says: “On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, ‘They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.’”

Peter and John raced to the tomb and saw it was empty with the burial clothes rolled up. Then, they returned home.

“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 assumed he was the gardener until he revealed himself to her and said her name, “Mary.” Imagine her overwhelming joy.

Those words, “Why are you weeping?” can be interpreted another way: “Why are you weeping? There’s no reason to weep. Everything is going to be all right.”

Now imagine Jesus asking us the same thing in our grief: “Why are you weeping?” He surely knows why because he knows all things and he has shared our grief.

However, in another sense, he is saying to us, “Why are you weeping when everything is going to be all right? Trust me.” Isn’t that his message to us? Hasn’t that always been his message to us? He will wipe away every tear.

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