EASTER 2016 World Association of Alumnae and Alumni of the Sacred Heart (AMASC)

The Gospels about the women at the tomb on Easter morning have become in recent years a powerful focus of attention and a source for inspiration. I have chosen an approach from the corporeality of the women: heart / eyes; mouth / ears; hands/feet as symbols of their feelings and thoughts, their words and actions.

WOMEN RECALL AND LOOK The heart refers to the whole person and these texts reflect this passion: "... with fear and great joy” (Matthew 28,8) " they were perplexed (...) and remembered His words..." (Luke 24,4.8) The eyes express all that inner world and connect with reality: Mary Magdalene cometh and telleth the disciples, I have seen the Lord; and that he had said these things unto her. (John 20.18) The absence of Jesus has awakened in these women their desire and quest.

WOMEN WHO LISTEN AND PROCLAIM The expressive dimension lies in the ability to listen, symbolized by the ears. The other side, saying, talking, proclaiming, telling... is attributed to the mouth, and reveals one's intimacy, of sharing with others what one thinks, feels, and experiences. What did the women hear the morning of the first day of the week? "Fear not: go tell my brethren” (Matthew 28,10) What was their answer? “… They departed quickly and ran to bring his disciples word” (Matthew 28,8) They announce what they have seen and, above all, what they have heard.

WOMEN WHO RUN CARRYING FRAGRANCES Human doing is expressed through the hands and feet “…they came unto the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.” (Lk 24,1) “Mary Magdalene runneth therefore, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple” (John 20, 1-2) Everything happens at dawn, at that time the light is also anticipating a day. It is not the time to sleep but to keep vigil in the middle of the night´s darkness, that is why there is impatience, urgency to get ahead of dawn´s early light.

WE WANT TO SEEK HIM WITH YOU! The reality that precedes Easter is dramatically named death, failure, disappointment of all expectations. We can also feel as if we were still living on the evening of Friday, returning with a broken mood of burying our projects, hopes and promises in the tomb, and we can react by "closing the doors for fear..." (Jn 20:19). The temptation may be to "prolong the Sabbath". How do we find the Risen One with Magdalene, Mary Salome, the other...? How to make their story "our story"?

But in the morning "first day", there is an alternative path: the one of those who, then and now, start to walk "when it was still dark" and approach the places of death to try to snatch away from death some of its victory. They know they cannot move the stone but that does not stop them. They are aware of the fragility and the disproportion of what they carry in their hands, but that does not turn off the fire of their compassion nor makes their love less stubborn.

Today, those women break again in our groups announcing: "We have seen the Lord!". We received the good news from them: the Living always reaches out to those who seek Him, floods them with joy, sends them to comfort his people, invites them to a new relationship of brothers and sons. He goes always before us, word of women. Adapted from the text. “Women in the tomb: a story that is ours” Dolores Aleixandre, rscj Adaptation: Marigela Orvañanos de Malcher