Easter

“Go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord.’” —John 20:17–18

Resurrection is a daily event. We live the Easter experience every day. Sometimes we are like Mary Magdalene, who encountered the risen Jesus personally in the garden. At first she didn’t recognize him, but then suddenly and unexpectedly the veil of faith became less opaque for her. I still remember when a student named Erin surprised me with a cake on the last class day at Notre Dame. In her gesture of thanks, I saw my many students whose energy and talents taught me that God is a lavish giver and made me feel like Mary in the garden.

Other times we are like one of the disciples who must rely on the words and experience of another to reveal the presence of the risen Lord to us. A student named John was such a witness for me. His peaceful freedom after being diagnosed with terminal cancer culminated six months later with his death on Easter morning. The message of faith and hope he spoke and lived has been with me ever since.

When we live with trust and with eyes wide open every day, Jesus, our risen Lord, comes to meet us again and again, yet always unexpectedly and always as if for the first time.

—Written by Sister Mary Louise Gude

Excerpted from The Gift of the Cross, ed. by Andrew Gawrych, CSC. Copyright (c) 2009 by the Priests of Holy Cross, Indiana Province. Used by permission of the publisher, Ave Maria Press, P.O. Box 428, Notre Dame, IN 46556, www.avemariapress.com