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Fear and Joy
5 min
Gospel
Mt 28:1-10
Now after the sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Mag′dalene and the other Mary went to see the sepulchre. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. Lo, I have told you.” So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Hail!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
Readings are taken from Dynamic Catholic’s Bible: RSV Catholic Edition.
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Transcript
Fear and Joy
What is it that jumps out at you today? For me, it's this idea that they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy. I often talk to the kids, I explain to them that you can feel two things at once and two things can be true at the same time. So for example, I can be excited to go on a trip and sad to be leaving my family at home. I can experience these two things at once. Both of these things can be true at the same time. They can be equally true. And so we see this here with the disciples. So they depart quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy. So today, let's think about where are we experiencing this twofoldness? Where are we experiencing two emotions at the same time? Maybe there's a relationship at the moment. You're experiencing two emotions. Maybe there's a situation. Maybe there's a decision you need to make. You're experiencing two emotions about that. Maybe you've made a decision and you're experiencing two emotions about that. The thing I tell the kids always is that emotions are messengers. They bring us messages. One of the kids maybe be upset because they didn't win something.
And what is the message? The message is you really cared. You worked hard. It mattered to you. Not to discount that, not to throw that away, but to realize, "Okay, I didn't win this time. It mattered to me. That's why I'm upset or sad or whatever." But the emotions that we experience are bringing messages to us. The question is, are we listening to the messages? And are we bringing the messages to God and saying, "All right, God, what is, in this case, what does this fear mean? And what does this great joy mean?" And allowing God to speak to us through the emotions that we experience every day of our lives. Let's go out in there in the world. Let's be mindful of how do we react? How do we respond to different things? What emotions rise up in us in different situations, in the presence of different people, and what messages are those emotions bringing into our lives? Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.
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