One beautiful expression of popular piety on Easter Sunday
is the holding of the Encuentro. It is held at early dawn to commemorate the
meeting between Mary and her risen Son. The
image of Mary veiled in black symbolizing her sorrow is accompanied by the
procession of women while the image of the Risen Christ is accompanied by
men. The meeting of the images is then dramatized
to portray the joy that dispels the sorrow of Mary as she meets her risen son.
This joyous encounter is not mentioned in the Gospels. But for St. Ignatius of Loyola the meeting
between Mary and the Risen Lord is considered to be common sense. In his book, The Spiritual Exercises, one of the contemplations
on the Resurrection deals with what for him would have been Jesus' very
first appearance after rising from the dead. Common sense tells us that such an appearance would
have been to his Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary who had been actively
present in all of his life, from womb to tomb. Indeed, this might be the reason
why Mary’s name is not mentioned in the list of women who went to the tomb on
Easter dawn. Mary had no need of
visiting the tomb, for Jesus had appeared to her.
Easter joy through the
eyes of Mary. During my 30-day Ignatian retreat, I did this contemplation
and realized that the best way to experience the joy of Easter is to see the
mystery of the resurrection through the eyes of Mary. If there was one person who suffered most the excruciating
pain of watching Jesus being humiliated and violently slaughtered on the cross,
it was certainly no other than his
mother, Mary. It is not difficult to see
Mary’s heart to have been torn into pieces as she witnessed the passion and
death of her son. The darkness of Good
Friday was most oppressive to Mary as a mother who watched his son died
violently. Yet Mary had always been a
woman of faith. She had always kept everything
about Jesus in her heart and pondered on them. She had always believed that what was spoken
to her by the Lord would be fulfilled. Hence, while reeling from her deepest
sorrow for Jesus’ death, Mary had been strengthened by hope and anticipation. On Easter dawn, the sorrow of Mary turned into
rejoicing and joy. Any mother can empathize
with this indescribable joy of embracing once again a son who had victoriously
overcome death with a glorious eternal life.
In my own contemplation of the meeting between Mary and the
Risen Lord, I shed a river of tears--tears of tremendous joy—and sang along
with the rejoicing Mother: “Ang puso ko’y
nagpupuri, nagpupuri sa Panginoon. Nagagalak ang aking espiritu sa ‘king
tagapagligtas!” Indeed, as the psalmist chants, today we all rejoice, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let
us rejoice and be glad” (Ps 118). Alleluia!
As we participate in the Encuentro,
we are invited to experience the joy of Easter through the eyes of Mary. Pray for the gift of that joy. Unlike any fleeting ecstatic emotion, this
gift of joy stays in our heart as disposition and shapes the way we live as
followers of the Risen Christ. This joy
is to be our character as Easter people. But how do we nurture this precious Easter
gift of joy? Let me suggest three ways:
First, Sunday Renewal. The Lord’s Day, the day of his resurrection,
is our day of gathering as an Easter community. Let this weekly anniversary enkindle the joy
in our hearts as we celebrate the Eucharist. We are a community of
witnesses. According to Peter in our
first reading (Acts 10: 34a, 37-43): “This
man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the
people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank
with him after he rose from the dead.” The Eucharist is a privilege event
for us whom God has invited to be witnesses of the living Lord. We encounter
the risen Lord as a community when we break bread in his memory.
Second, Heralding Forgiveness. We are called not just to the joyful fellowship
among us but also to reach out to those whose lives have been deprived of joy. There’s just so much suffering around us
because of sin and its unfortunate consequences. Only forgiveness in the name of the risen
Lord can overcome the power of sin.
Peter continued to speak in our first reading about our commissioning to
testify about Jesus Christ. We are to be heralds of forgiveness in the name of
Jesus. And experience tells us that one of our deepest joys is the experience
of being forgiven and of having forgiven. Forgiveness sets us free from the
chain of sin. Such is an Easter event.
Third, Cultivating Humor. A sign of resurrection faith is humor. Humor rests on the confidence that even if
things do not seem to go well, everything will be alright. We do not have to
control everything in life. As Richard
Gula puts it, “…humor is about perceiving
discrepancies and incongruities in daily life, about embracing absurdities in
human experience without granting them the last word. Humor enables us to let
go of control and to sit more lightly on life by not taking ourselves too
seriously.” Our gift of Easter joy
can be nurtured as we cultivate our sense humor, as we develop our capacity to laugh
at our imperfections and even at our miseries for we know they do not define
our destiny.
Mary of Magdala, Peter, and John saw the empty tomb of Jesus
on Easter morning. Later and gradually,
they would understand its meaning. The
tomb is empty because the Lord lives! The risen Lord will soon appear to the
disciples. On that Sunday morning though, the beloved Son had to console his
sorrowing mother who had always been there for him. If we could only witness
such a moving encounter, we would have a real taste of the tremendous and
indescribable joy of Easter.
