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<span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:#363737"><a href="https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/pope-francis?utm_source=substack&publication_id=47400&post_id=161800335&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true&r=m65gw&triedRedirect=true">The
Pope’s final sermon</a> began with the words, “Mary Magdalene.” <o:p></o:p></span></h4>
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<span style="font-family:"Roboto Slab";color:#363737">The entire sermon is beautiful — and I found it spiritually stunning. In it, Pope Francis elevated Mary Magdalene to the same status (maybe even a higher status!) as Peter and John, the two most significant
disciples. Some of this happens “between the lines,” but there’s a lot happening theologically in this homily. He transformed the witness of two into a triad of three, lifting her (he continually lists her first) as a model for the entire church and faithful
discipleship. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Roboto Slab";color:#363737">From his <b><a href="https://substack.com/redirect/71598f4f-2eb5-4c54-923a-0856fd80e08c?j=eyJ1IjoibTY1Z3cifQ.Qk9Y8Z2oXJGLMc_ZMUvMuiNPsyY1yjwhQNaq4oJSzfU" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0D9488">Easter
sermon</span></a>:</b> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<em><span style="font-family:"Roboto Slab";color:#363737">Mary Magdalene, seeing that the stone of the tomb had been rolled away, ran to tell Peter and John. After receiving the shocking news, the two disciples also went out and — as the Gospel says — “the
two were running together” (Jn 20:4). The main figures of the Easter narratives all ran! On the one hand, “running” could express the concern that the Lord’s body had been taken away; but, on the other hand, the haste of Mary Magdalene, Peter and John expresses
the desire, the yearning of the heart, the inner attitude of those who set out to search for Jesus. He, in fact, has risen from the dead and therefore is no longer in the tomb. We must look for him elsewhere.</span></em><span style="font-family:"Roboto Slab";color:#363737"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<em><span style="font-family:"Roboto Slab";color:#363737">This is the message of Easter: we must look for him elsewhere. Christ is risen, he is alive! He is no longer a prisoner of death, he is no longer wrapped in the shroud, and therefore we cannot confine
him to a fairy tale, we cannot make him a hero of the ancient world, or think of him as a statue in a museum! On the contrary, we must look for him and this is why we cannot remain stationary. We must take action, set out to look for him: look for him in life,
look for him in the faces of our brothers and sisters, look for him in everyday business, look for him everywhere except in the tomb.</span></em><span style="font-family:"Roboto Slab";color:#363737"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<em><span style="font-family:"Roboto Slab";color:#363737">We must look for him without ceasing. Because if he has risen from the dead, then he is present everywhere, he dwells among us, he hides himself and reveals himself even today in the sisters and brothers
we meet along the way, in the most ordinary and unpredictable situations of our lives. He is alive and is with us always, shedding the tears of those who suffer and adding to the beauty of life through the small acts of love carried out by each of us.</span></em><span style="font-family:"Roboto Slab";color:#363737"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<em><span style="font-family:"Roboto Slab";color:#363737">For this reason, our Easter faith, which opens us to the encounter with the risen Lord and prepares us to welcome him into our lives, is anything but a complacent settling into some sort of “religious
reassurance.” On the contrary, Easter spurs us to action, to run like Mary Magdalene and the disciples; it invites us to have eyes that can “see beyond,” to perceive Jesus, the one who lives, as the God who reveals himself and makes himself present even today,
who speaks to us, goes before us, surprises us. Like Mary Magdalene, every day we can experience losing the Lord, but every day we can also run to look for him again, with the certainty that he will allow himself to be found and will fill us with the light
of his resurrection.</span></em><span style="font-family:"Roboto Slab";color:#363737"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Roboto Slab";color:#363737"><br>
<strong><span style="font-family:"Roboto Slab"">Today, Pope Francis ran into the tender embrace of a loving God.
</span></strong><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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