«Et dicebant ad invicem quis revolvet nobis lapidem ab ostio monumenti?»
(They were saying to one another, “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”)
– Mark 16:3
The Lord’s Passover reveals the solidarity of the living God with our condition as pilgrims in time and at the same time gives us the Christian hope of becoming citizens of eternity. While in the death of Christ God’s faithful closeness to human pain and tribulations is made manifest to us, in his resurrection we are faced with the event in which the destination of time is revealed and promised to us, to its happy fulfillment in communion with God.
The historical events that take place between the Ascension and the return of Christ represent an extension of the virtuality of the Paschal mystery to every human era, touching both the collective and the personal dimension. When Jesus says, at the end of the Gospel according to Matthew: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age”, he is speaking to us of that power of God at work in Christ that each of us can experience in our own person, ontologically and not only emotionally, provided we open the eyes of our heart, biblically understood. Here we also find the origin and substance of the history of the Church, which is above all the history of the consequences of this gift.
People can remain indifferent to it or even oppose it, as the events of every age remind us only too well, but in reality, it sets out on its journey through history, creating multitudes of Saints, both known and unknown, giving to all those who sincerely desire it the same feelings as Christ, in his love for the least, in his fight for justice, in his dedication to each person, in his spirit of adoration of the Father and of prayer. Those who analyze the contemporary world with the eyes of faith certainly perceive all its negativity and distortions, but they also see the Spirit of the Risen One who works incessantly to save this same humanity.
As consecrated persons we have the grace, which in a Christian way must always be transformed into a task and a mission, to live our daily Easter in the comparison between our conscience and the Word of the Risen One, in the participation in the Sacraments, radiating the power of the paschal mystery and, given the community dimension of our consecration, in supporting each other, in giving each other that charity which is the only true patrimony that will have consistency at the moment of our definitive encounter with Christ.
As consecrated to Mary, during this Easter season let us meditate on the decisive passages that took place in the life of the Virgin. The fiat of the Immaculate Conception marks the transition between the New and the Old Testament; in her virginal womb God “passed” from heaven to earth and on Calvary she was the faithful witness of humanity’s passage from life to death. May the maternal presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary support our religious family on its journey through the tribulations of the world and the consolations of God until the definitive Easter in Christ.
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