Easter Sunday.
“This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.”
We come to the end of our Lenten pilgrimage and are ready to go along our seven weeks of Easter joy. Rejoice and be glad because the loser becomes the winner and the last will be first and the first will be last. What does that mean? Well, do you remember the parable of the vineyard owner?
Mk 12,1-12 is about a landowner who leases his vineyard to tenants, who repeatedly reject his messengers and ultimately kill his son, the heir. The owner then vows to destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. The chief priests and elders of the people killed Jesus but, on Easter Sunday, He rose triumphant, and He cannot die anymore. They cannot have a hand on him anymore. The vineyard is His and He will now leave it in the hands of His Apostles and disciples. In the eyes of everyone on Good Friday, Jesus and his disciples were the losers, but on Easter morning, they are the winners.
Now, what about first being last and last being first? Well, Peter, John, and James were called to follow Jesus from the start of His ministry. These three were His closest friends who would be with Him on some special occasions, like Transfiguration and Gethsemane. Mary Magdalene was among the last comers. She had been living in sin for years and was considered a public sinner. But from the day
Jesus forgave her, she became so attached to Him that she was ready to do anything for Him and decided to be an everyday follower. So, when Jesus was arrested, she decided to keep on following him, to be by Him until the end. Peter denied Jesus, not once but three times, and at a certain point disappeared completely. Only John and Mary Magdalene remained with Mary until Jesus was buried.
On Easter Sunday, Jesus did not appear to Peter nor to John nor to James but to Mary Magdalene, the least, the last. She received from Jesus a mission to go and tell Peter and John and others that He is alive and would meet with them soon. The last and the least became the first.
Sisters and brothers, I wanted to point these truths from the Gospel to you on this most important day when we are invited to renew our baptismal promises. Let us invoke the assistance of St. Mary Magdalene before we do it. We need her determination, her constancy, her loyalty. Like her, we can decide to follow Jesus once and for all without looking back. Like her we can, yes, we can decide not to look back to our deadly sins, to do away with “the yeast of malice and wickedness.” This is what renewing our baptismal promises means, leaving sin in the past and living a new life in Christ, for Christ, with Christ.