21 April 2014
Monday of the Octave of Easter
The women “ran to announce the news [of Jesus’ Resurrection] to his disciples.” In doing so they set a precedent. Form the very beginning of Christianity, it has been the role of women to announce and sustain the faith in ways different from, but no less compelling, than Peter’s exhortation in the First reading.
Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire quietly and effectually chiefly through the instrumentality of women. Is it surprising that today in Latin America it is the women who flare up fires of Pentecostalism in the dead wood of a Catholic tradition? Mothers generally plant the seeds of faith in their children. And there are those among us today who remember how the nuns in Catholic schools nurtured that faith.
In our secular society today women are encouraged to be men and men women. We must pray that women, particularly young women, will recognize and affirm their unique vocation and hear Jesus repeat: “Do not be afraid! Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee [the world], and there they will see me.”