Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Pope came from Castel Gandolfo, where he is resting after a busy Easter schedule, to give his weekly general audience to about 35,000 visitors gathered in St Peter’s Square on April 11. In his catechesis the Pope reflected on the Risen Lord’s meetings with various people: Mary of Magdala and the other women who had gone to the tomb, the apostles gathered in the Upper Room, Thomas and other disciples. “These apparitions - the Pontiff said -call us to reflect on the fundamental message of Easter; to walk the same spiritual path as those who encountered Christ and recognised him in those first days after the events of Easter”. For the Fathers of the Church, Peter and John running to the tomb “encourage us to take part in the only legitimate competition among believers: the competition to encounter Christ. And what can we say about Mary of Magdala? She weeps at the empty tomb and longs to know where they have taken her Master. She finds and recognises Him when He calls her by name. We too, if we seek the Lord with a simple and sincere heart, will meet him, indeed He will come to meet us; he will say who he is, and call us by name, so we may enter the intimacy of his love.”
To comment on the meeting between the Risen Lord and the disciples at Emmaus, the day’s Gospel, the Holy Father quoted St Augustine of Hippo: “Jesus breaks the bread, we recognise him. We no longer say we do not know Christ! If we believe in him, we know him! Indeed if we believe in him, we have him! They had Christ at their table; we have him in our souls!” And he concludes: “To have Christ in one’s heart is much more than having him in one’s home: in fact our heart is much more intimate to us than our home” (Discourse 232, VII, 7). Pope Benedict XVI mentioned two other meetings with the Risen Lord. “To Mary of Magdala Jesus said: ‘‘do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.’ (Jn 20, 17). A surprising statement if compared with what happened with the doubting Thomas. In the Upper Room it is the Risen Lord who shows his hands and his side for the Apostle to touch so he may be certain it was Him. However these two episodes are not in contrast; on the contrary, one helps us to understand the other. Mary of Magdala would like to have the Master again as before, she sees the cross as a dramatic event to be forgotten. But with the Risen Lord a merely human relationship is no longer possible. To encounter Him we must not go back, we must establish a new relationship with Him, we must go forward!... This happened for Thomas. Jesus shows him his wounds not that he may forget the cross, but rather to make the cross unforgettable also in the future.”
The Pope concluded urging those present to look to the future: “the task of the disciple is to bear witness to the death and resurrection of the Master and His new life … We too, like Mary of Magdala, Thomas and the other apostles, are called to be witnesses of Christ’s death and resurrection. We cannot keep such great news to ourselves. We must share it with the whole world:
