(Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.)
We take a moment to remember Mary Magdalene, whom we can call the apostle to the apostles because she brought the news of Christ’s resurrection to the apostles. Our reading today speaks of the reality and the consequences of the resurrection of Christ.
It is simply stated. If one died for all, then all have died. It follows that if that one who died now lives, then all are alive and living because of that one. In fact, Christ is that one and Christ did die for us. So, in Christ we all have died. Christ, however, also rose from the dead and, therefore, all of us are alive in Christ.
Not only are we living in Christ, but we also have a new perspective on life. Before we were alive in Christ, we thought we could live for ourselves alone, but now that we are living in Christ, we are alive for Christ, not for ourselves. This is a new creation, a new way of looking at reality. Old things have passed away and we have new things.
Mary Magdalene once knew Christ before his death and resurrection. She was blessed by Christ’s ministry and healed in her body, mind and spirit. When she saw Christ after he had risen from the dead, she did not recognize him. She needed to learn to see Christ in a new way.
We are baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ. In other words, when we receive baptism, we die as he died, and we emerge from baptism as those risen from the dead. In baptism, then, we become a new creation and our older style of living has no value for us. Once baptized, we are put on a new course, following the risen Christ. We shall experience the fulness of this newness when we pass through physical death to see the fullness of Christ.
Those who have passed over before us have gone before us in the sign of faith. We hope that we can follow them and all of us see the fulness of the risen Christ in his glory.
Christ died for us, the One for the all; Christ rose from the dead, the One for the all. What the One did for the all, the all have done in that One. We are all a part of that all, united in the One who did everything for us all.