[00:00:05] Speaker A: This is Faith Break, a podcast about recognizing God moments in our everyday lives, with hosts Karen Luke and Anne Gallagher.
This Easter Sunday, Karen and Anne reflect on what new life looks like in our lives.
How the blessing of the resurrection is. Can still seem unfinished.
And on moving forward with courage, even when we don't have all the answers.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Faith Break. It is Easter Sunday. Happy Easter.
I am Anne Gallagher.
[00:00:46] Speaker C: And I am Karen Luke.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: And we are friends, co workers, moms, ministers, partners in crime and good crime. Good crime. And we are here to help you find your God moments in your everyday, especially on this Easter Sunday, this Easter week.
[00:01:04] Speaker C: Oh, my God.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: So we made it through Lent.
[00:01:05] Speaker C: We did. You guys did great.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Good job. Good job, everybody.
Yeah. So today we're gonna take a look at the Easter readings. We're gonna talk about one of our favorite biblical people, Mary Magdalene, and
[00:01:21] Speaker C: everything
[00:01:21] Speaker B: that Easter means for us. Because I think we sometimes get Easter a little bit.
I don't know. Well, we're going to talk about that later. First of all, let's do our God moments. Do you have a God moment full of joy today?
[00:01:34] Speaker C: Okay, I know I've talked about this a lot, but the right of election for our. So the right of election for those that don't know.
All of the people who are going through OCIA and OCIC who want to be Catholic go to the cathedral the first Sunday of Lent every year, and they get to meet the bishop and the catechumens. So those that are being baptized get to sign a book.
And it's just a beautiful celebration.
And this year it was standing room only.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: That's amazing.
[00:02:12] Speaker C: There were so many people that we are going to be bringing into the church that are making their sacraments.
[00:02:18] Speaker B: Actually, by the time you watch this, we will have done it last night.
[00:02:20] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: It will have been last night. Yeah.
[00:02:22] Speaker C: Oh, that's right. Crazy record. Super early.
Yeah. So it was just packed. And I looked at one of the priests and I said, I think we might need a bigger cathedral.
But it was just so beautiful, like little kids and adults and older, like 70 year olds that are coming into the church.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: It's just. It was such a beautiful talk about joy.
[00:02:47] Speaker C: Blessing and joy. It really. It really was. So how about you?
[00:02:53] Speaker B: Okay. Mine is nowhere near as spiritual and religious as that, but this is again, is going back a little bit because we're delayed. But we, our family recently had a week in Disney. All right. So it's. Our oldest is graduating from high school. This is our last big family Vacation before. Things change a lot for us. And I'm not really that much of a Disney person, but my husband Brian is super into it, and we do have fun.
So. The one thing I really do like, though, is roller coasters and thrill rides. And I just. It brings me joy. Like that rush you get from.
[00:03:30] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: And so Disney has this thing where they take a secret picture of you. Like, you might be, like, at the top of the roller coaster. And, like, they take a picture right as you're, like, going down there, and then you can see it at the end. And Brian's collecting all these pictures on the end, and he's just laughing. He looks at me. He's like, you are so gorgeous. He's like, I see. He's like, every one of these pictures at the moment they take the picture, he's like, you have the biggest smile on your face. And I'm like, it's the joy.
I like the roller coasters.
[00:04:03] Speaker C: I know what we're doing in summer, right?
[00:04:06] Speaker B: But I'm like, you know, this year has been so heavy for us, and it's been just. There's been a lot. And just to have that week where we could just have fun. We could just be together and just. It was so fun. It just was so fun. So that was our joy. My joy was. I love that. I love roller coasters.
Kind of shallow, but there we are.
[00:04:27] Speaker C: No, it's not shallow at all. Because we find God in all things.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: God in all things. You know, you gotta find your joy.
[00:04:35] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: Okay. So, joy. I was saying before we do Easter. Wrong. Okay. I know that's like kind of a.
A bold claim, but I. I want to say we have from the distance of 2,000 years, when we're looking at the Easter morning, especially the Easter morning story, we come in Easter morning, and it's like all the alleluias, and it's, you know, I mean, the lights come on and all the flowers, and it's like, joy, joy, joy, joy, joy. Yeah. But when we look at the scripture and we have Mary Magdalene tiptoeing to the empty tomb while it's still dark out.
I'm just saying she wasn't there yet.
It was a quiet joy. He's not here.
He's not here. That's what Easter is. I mean, we have 50 days in the Easter season yet to untangle all the.
The meaning of the joy and the joy of the resurrection. But on that Easter Sunday morning, it's still kind of an in between time, I think you know.
[00:05:42] Speaker C: No, that's totally true.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: I don't know. What do you think about that?
[00:05:45] Speaker C: Yeah. And.
And I also think we do Easter wrong because we put all of our eggs in the same basket.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:05:55] Speaker C: Just for Sunday, like I.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: Right. The east, like the dread. But I'm pretty dressed.
The easter season is 50 days longer than Lent.
[00:06:04] Speaker C: Longer than Lent. And it's just for me.
I love to see everybody who attends. It's great.
But it's not just a day.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: Right.
[00:06:18] Speaker C: It's a season of new life and learning and deepening.
And I would love to see that much enthusiasm on the other Sundays of Easter.
Not that I'm. You know, I'm not dissing anybody.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:42] Speaker C: But I think we sometimes fail in that realization of it's more than just that day. Because, like you said, Jesus wasn't there that day.
We're celebrating something that's 50 days.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Right. And even if you come. So if you come to mass on Easter morning, you have a short version of the Gospel.
And I think later on in the Easter season, we get more of the story with Mary Magdalene. But our gospel for this morning ends.
So Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb and finds the stone removed from the tomb. And so she goes to Simon Peter and the other disciple.
We know who that is.
And they run. Okay. And then we have this whole business. The other disciple running faster than Peter. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:07:33] Speaker C: Which I still think is weird that they put that in there.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: You know, men. I don't know.
But. So they go into the tomb, they find it empty, and they find the burial clothes.
And he said he saw and believed, but they did not yet understand the scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.
Like, they saw the empty tomb. They believed, but they don't really know what they believe yet.
Right.
[00:08:07] Speaker C: Well, let's go back to Lazarus.
[00:08:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:09] Speaker C: You know.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Yeah. So, I mean, and then there's a second. The part two of John, chapter 20 is Jesus appearing. The other disciples go, men leave, and Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene and they have a whole exchange. But we don't get that part on Easter Sunday morning this time around. We'll get it later on.
So.
[00:08:26] Speaker C: I like that part.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: I know. It's my favorite part. We can talk about it anyway. Cause you know it's coming. But like that. Yeah, it's not.
They don't have answers.
They have an empty tomb.
[00:08:38] Speaker C: Now, I've never thought about it this way. And as I was reading and thinking and listening to other people, the stone was already moved. Not for Jesus to get out of but for them to see in.
I never thought about it that way.
Like, Jesus didn't need the stone to be rolled away to get out.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: He was resurrected, right? Yeah.
[00:09:06] Speaker C: So they could have came and that stone was.
Would have still been there.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: And Jesus still could have risen from the dead.
[00:09:14] Speaker C: Jesus still could have risen from the dead.
[00:09:15] Speaker B: So the stone was there so other people.
[00:09:16] Speaker C: So the stone was moved so they could see in that Jesus wasn't there.
[00:09:22] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:22] Speaker C: And I was like, oh, I never thought about that. I never thought about it that way. And how cool that is that like you have that element of that surprise and that invitation of the possibility.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: And the whole Easter season is like that. Like all of the we have will hear over the coming weeks all these resurrection stories or appearances where Jesus, the resurrected Christ interacts with his friends and followers. But they never recognize him at first. Right? So they don't.
The resurrected Jesus is not the earthly
[00:09:55] Speaker C: Jesus that we know.
[00:09:56] Speaker B: He's not their Jesus.
[00:09:58] Speaker C: Right.
[00:09:59] Speaker B: Like, they still.
That loss stands. The loss they had of the Jesus who walked with them is still real even as they are experiencing the risen Jesus.
Because this is a new Jesus.
[00:10:18] Speaker C: Do you think he still had his long hair and beautiful beard, like Jesus?
Yeah, right.
[00:10:23] Speaker B: Could be Jesus.
I don't know. I don't know what that was about. It's one of the great mysteries. Right. But it's consistent in all the resurrection appearances.
And then we have the resurrection appearance that didn't make it into the Bible. But we know happened right. In our hearts. Because when you think Jesus would have Rosen from the dead and not seen his mom.
[00:10:42] Speaker C: Oh, 1000% would have.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: Would have gone to see you.
[00:10:45] Speaker C: Yeah. Would have gone to see you.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: So. But we don't have that in the scripture. But like, you know, it happened, right? Like, it definitely happened.
[00:10:50] Speaker C: I think Mary would be very upset if she found out that she was the only one.
I mean, that would be like.
That would be like our kids going to. Coming. If they lived out of state, coming to the state that we live in
[00:11:05] Speaker B: and not coming, seeing all their friends
[00:11:08] Speaker C: and then flying out the next day without seeing.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: No.
[00:11:10] Speaker C: Right. No. Right. I don't think Jesus would have done that.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: So Easter is like, it's a whole process, right? Like, it's not.
We wake up Easter Sunday morning and everything's fixed. That's not it. And when you think about the apostles, like, their work, really, it hadn't even started yet. This work of like, they're going to build the church. And so what we see over the course of Easter it's the resurrection appearances and them understanding Jesus in a new way. But it's also them trying to understand Jesus but then figuring out what he wants him to do. Because Jesus didn't build a church. He had 12 apostles. Yeah, like really, it's in. I don't wanna say that, like this isn't exactly true, but it's almost like he left the hard work for everybody who came later.
I mean, he did hard work, he did hard work, but like he didn't do the, he didn't the building. He didn't spread the word, he didn't do the building of the community and the infrastructure and all of that.
[00:12:09] Speaker C: But he gave them all of the tools to do that. But they were so self absorbed that without Jesus they felt like they couldn't do anything. That Jesus was the blueprint.
And if he wasn't there, then what?
[00:12:24] Speaker B: So Easter, the whole Easter season, the process is about coming to terms with what the resurrection means for us believers, right? And what does it mean to be a resurrection person and Easter people.
And it's not easy.
It's just not easy.
[00:12:43] Speaker C: Even when Jesus was alive, he was telling them what was going to happen and they're still like, right, they just, they, they weren't getting it then and it takes them a long time to get it right now.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Which is why it's so fun to read the Acts of the Apostles in the Easter season. Because you see these knuckleheads pulling it together so that we can get to the point in like today's first reading.
Hang on, I'm going back to it.
[00:13:10] Speaker C: It's like, yeah, you could do it.
[00:13:12] Speaker B: So, right, so we have in Acts 10, this is the story of like Peter getting up and basically like he's giving the spiel, like the company.
[00:13:20] Speaker C: Like this is the, he's like the CEO.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: This is what happened. And he's like, God made us, we're witnesses to everything that Jesus did.
And he commissioned us, like we are the witnesses to Jesus. And he commissioned us to spread the good news and to preach and to teach and to like bring healing and all that.
And so it's like the apostles journey from like running away at the foot of the cross to what it took to build the church, to receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and to like, I mean, it's totally miraculous because it never would have happened without the movement of Jesus in the spirit.
[00:14:00] Speaker C: Right. And what I also like about all of this is that they didn't, the Mary and the disciples, they didn't recognize Jesus until he called them by name.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: Right.
And different stories are different. He called them by name with Mary.
[00:14:21] Speaker C: Like, Mary was like. He just said Mary, and it says in the scripture.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: And then she knew he called her by name. And then we. At the end of May story, it's when he broke the bread. Right. So there's something that happens.
Yeah. They help them understand, recognize him.
[00:14:36] Speaker C: But I love the fact that.
He calls them by name and that they are commissioned and that they have this personal invitation to recognize him as the risen Lord.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: I mean, it's just one of the most beautiful things about our faith that, you know, the cross and the empty tomb are always in conversation. Right. The resurrection and Good Friday are always.
We're always walking with both of them. Right. So even on Easter Sunday, we remember the loss of Jesus and the fact that all of these apostles, I think, except for maybe John, were martyred. Right. Like, they. So there's joy in the resurrection, but there's also the knowledge that, like, it's not like their lives were easy after this. Right.
They had to keep discerning the next step in prayer and in community, and they had to muster the courage to go where Jesus was leading, where the Holy Spirit was leading.
Even though for, you know, for, I think all of them, except for John, it would end the way Jesus's life ended.
And to. To be able to walk that road still with the spirit of joy around you and the joy of the resurrection around you.
[00:16:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:01] Speaker B: I mean, we know holy people in our lives who model this for us, too.
[00:16:05] Speaker C: Right.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: People who can walk, can walk through suffering with joy or can be present to suffering with great love and peace. And that's.
I think that's what it means to be a resurrection, people. It doesn't mean there's no more cross.
[00:16:22] Speaker C: It's just a party. Yeah.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: It just means you've integrated it. Right? Yeah.
I don't know.
Hmm.
[00:16:33] Speaker C: And the fact, you know, we're talking about be the change, or we are the change. Change your heart, change your heart, whatever one it is.
Where the disciples were before is not where they are now.
So they also had that change. They also had that question of what's gonna happen.
But what happened before didn't define them. So their knucklehead ness, if that's the word I wanna use, didn't define them. They grew.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: They grew out of it.
[00:17:07] Speaker C: They grew out of that and through that.
I just want to say Mary was kind of the only one who really knew and understood everything, but I won't say that. Yes, I Will.
But it's, you know, this change of.
They knew that it was coming, but I don't think that they expected it the way that it did.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:29] Speaker C: You know, and we're talking about. On Good Friday, we didn't talk about them, but, you know, Peter, oh, I would never deny you.
And then denies him. And then Thomas, who gets the bad rap, you know, it's just.
It goes back to the humanity, the humanness of the disciples, that they lacked courage sometimes, but then regained it in wisdom and knowledge and all of that.
But it goes back to one of my favorite sayings. You know, Jesus doesn't call the qualified.
He qualifies the call. And I don't know if it would have been.
I don't know if the church would have been created the way that it did if it had been people who seem to be more qualified.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: Right. Yeah. Well, and when you think of it, too, we've spent this whole Lenten season talking about, you know, changing our hearts, opening hearts, softening hearts, letting things go, setting things aside, letting them die so new things can rise.
But really, like Easter is.
It's not really a reversal of that. It's more of a deepening of it. When you think of that whole process just continues through Easter. And in all these resurrection appearances we're going to hear about in the coming weeks, Jesus will say, don't cling to me. Right. Because now we're walking towards the Ascension.
Yeah. He's got, you know, 40 days that he makes resurrection appearances to them in this new, mysterious body that people don't easily recognize at first until he, you know, connects them. Yeah. Makes it known. But even that only lasted 40 days. And then he goes back into the Trinity. I guess he was always in the Trinity. We're getting in the weeds now, but you know what I'm saying. He's not on Earth anymore after that. And it's still 10 days before Pentecost, before the Holy Spirit comes. And that's when, you know, we talked about the gifts of the Spirit without naming them. Wisdom, courage, knowledge, self control, all the fortitude. That's what. That's what the young church needed in its leaders for it to grow. And that's what the Holy Spirit gives us.
But they couldn't. They could. They. They had to let him go again.
[00:19:48] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:19:50] Speaker B: It's always. We're always being called to let things go and to grow new things. It's not.
Yeah. I don't know.
[00:19:58] Speaker C: Easier said than done.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:20:01] Speaker C: Like I haven't said that before in this podcast.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: Well, and when you think. I mean, we're all. We're. We're in this moment now, too. Right. Even in our. In our personal lives, in our faith communities, like, we're always needing the courage to move forward into the unknown. Like, change is always happening on all the different levels in our lives, and we don't always have all the answers. Right. So what helps in those times when we're called into a future we can't really imagine yet, but we know we need to get there? I mean, I think trust.
Trust in the process. Discernment. I think try to be responsive instead of reacting like we're talking about. I think having a team, having, like, the apostles had each other.
[00:20:45] Speaker C: Right.
[00:20:47] Speaker B: In a community, all these things are important.
[00:20:49] Speaker C: I think it's cool this year that our new bishop will be here for Easter.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: Yes. Yes.
[00:20:58] Speaker C: And will be here for our confirmation. And it's just. It's really cool.
Segue.
Yeah.
[00:21:06] Speaker B: Cause they don't.
[00:21:07] Speaker C: They don't always get.
See, now here's a question for Don.
[00:21:13] Speaker B: You need to phone a friend.
[00:21:14] Speaker C: Yeah. Phone a friend. They don't always get installed the same time. Correct. It's not.
I don't remember when Bishop Matano was installed.
[00:21:24] Speaker B: No. I don't think it's tied to any particular.
[00:21:26] Speaker C: Okay. So that's kind of cool, that.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: Yep. But we will. They'll have a new bishop for Easter. Yep.
[00:21:33] Speaker C: All right.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Oh, Easter. Do you want to say anything else? Mary Magdalene. I feel like we said we were going to talk more about her, but we have talked a lot about her in the past.
[00:21:42] Speaker C: I think I have said my piece.
[00:21:45] Speaker B: Mary, we love her.
[00:21:46] Speaker C: I.
I mean.
Oh, yeah.
[00:21:52] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:21:52] Speaker C: I mean, she's.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: She's great. She's.
[00:21:54] Speaker C: She's the first witness in the resurrection.
[00:21:56] Speaker B: Witness and apostle to the apostles, you
[00:21:59] Speaker C: know, And I love the fact that she was the one that told the apostles what happened and that she was the first one that Jesus spoke to. And I don't know, it just for the rap that she gets or who she was. I think a lot of the time talk about change, she's perceived as what she was before.
[00:22:23] Speaker B: Right.
[00:22:23] Speaker C: And not who she was after her change.
And I think that that's the stigma for her is that it's who she was before she met Jesus.
And I don't think that that's cool.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: And, you know, even. I don't think it's cool either. And even a lot of the stuff that's come out, people. I mean, a lot of, like, the fiction that's come out recently tries to, like, they try to, like, romanticize the thing between her and she. And that bugs me, too, because I'm like, it doesn't need to be that.
[00:22:50] Speaker C: Right.
[00:22:50] Speaker B: What we know is that, like, she was an important friend to him, but, like, their friendship, I mean, think about all the friends you have who are important to you, like, regardless of what their gender is, you have people on your team who are like.
And friends. And I just, yeah. Like, I love seeing the love between them, too, and the special role she plays in the church.
[00:23:13] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: So.
[00:23:14] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:23:15] Speaker B: Okay.
Well, all right. So, yeah. We're. Happy Easter.
[00:23:20] Speaker C: Happy Easter.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: We're still in the, in the.
We're still in the mystery through all. Through all of these next 50 days.
And so we hope you guys will walk with joy and with hope and with faith through this season.
And we're actually going to be taking a little hiatus from the podcast for a bit. So this is goodbye for now and
[00:23:46] Speaker C: not goodbye for good.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: Let us know if you have ideas for us in the future, things you'd like to see us tackle.
And again, we wish you a very blessed Easter season. Have a great week, you guys.
[00:23:57] Speaker C: Bye, everybody.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: Thanks for taking a Faith Break with us today.
Karen Luke and Ann Gallagher are lay ministers with the parishes of St. Catherine of Siena in Menden, New York, and Church of the Transfiguration in Pittsford, New York.
More about our parishes, including weekly live streamed Sunday Mass, can be
[email protected] Faith Break is engineered by Jeff Beckett.
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