Easter Sunday (A) Catena Nova and Homily
April 05, 2026
Catena Nova
When Christ had clothed himself completely in the humanity created in God’s image and transformed into the heavenly man the old man he had put on, the image united to himself ascended with him into heaven. At the sign of the great mystery of human nature now ascending with God the angelic powers cried out with joy, commanding the hosts of heaven: Lift up your gates, you princes, be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall enter. They, seeing the unheard of wonder of human natureunited to God, exclaimed in their turn: Who is this King of glory? and received the reply: The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory, the strong, the mighty, the powerful in battle. (St Hippolytus; attr.)
O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages." (St. John Chrysostom)
THE sacred work of our salvation was of such value in the sight of the creator of the universe that he counted it worth the shedding of his own blood. After his passion weakness was turned into strength, mortality into eternal life, and disgrace into glory. At Easter the Lord’s resurrection was the cause of our joy, now it is his ascension into heaven. Having made careful provision for the preaching of the Gospel and the mysteries of the new covenant, our Lord Jesus Christ was taken up to heaven before the eyes of his disciples. His bodily presence among them came to an end, and so what was visible in our Redeemer has passed into the sacraments.. (Pope St. Leo the Great)
We awaken in Christ's body as Christ awakens our bodies, and my poor hand is Christ. He enters my foot, and is infinitely me. I move my hand, and wonderfully my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him
(for God indivisibly whole, seamless in his Godhood.) I move my foot, and at once He appears in a flash of lightning. Do my words seem blasphemous? - Then open your heart to Him. And let yourself receive the one
who is opening to you so deeply. For if we genuinely love him, we wake up inside Christ's body. Where all our body, all over, every most hidden part of it, is realized as joy in Him, and He makes us utterly real. And everything that is hurt, everything that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful, maimed, ugly, irreparably damaged, is in Him transformed and recognized as whole, as lovely, and radiant in His light. We awaken as the Beloved in every last part of our body. (St. Symeon the New Theologian)
While it was still dark Mary had come to watch at the tomb, and she found Jesus whom she sought standing there in the flesh. But you must know him now according to the spirit, not according to the flesh, and you can be sure of finding his spiritual presence if you seek him with a desire like hers, and if he observes your persevering prayer. Say then to the Lord Jesus, with Mary’s love and longing: My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks for you. Make the Psalmist’s prayer your own as you say, O God, my God, I watch for you at morning light; my soul thirsts for you. Then see if you do not also find yourselves singing with them both: In the morning fill us with your love; we shall exult and rejoice all our days. (Bl. Guerric of Igny)
Christ was in the tomb; the whole world was sown with the seed of Christ’s life; that which happened thirty years ago in the womb of the Virgin Mother was happening now, but now it was happening yet more secretly, yet more mysteriously, in the womb of the whole world. Christ had already told those who flocked to hear Him preach that the seed must fall into the earth, or else remain by itself alone. Now the seed of His life was hidden in darkness in order that His life should quicken in countless hearts, over and over again for all time. His burial, which seemed to be the end, was the beginning. It was the beginning of Christ-life in multitudes of souls. It was the beginning, too, of the renewal of Christ’s life in countless souls. (Caryll Houselander)
Bringing these two things together - the mortal and the immortal, the earthly and the heavenly, the finite and the Infinite - is the central mystery of this mystery religion that we call Christianity. It's about "anointing" the world to be the real presence of God. This is what is celebrated in the Easter vigil and Eucharistic Feast. What we call "resurrection" is the full manifestation of the Incarnation itself. This is the revelation of what and who we really are...Thus the divine life comes down from heaven and is sown in a perishable body. But the divine life gradually rises up as the imperishable that it truly is. The world itself is to be wrapped in the mantle of divine praise, the presence of the life-giving Spirit. And this takes place through us, the highly conscious elements of the world, the humanity made from "humus," from the dust of the earth, the dust of the stars, and organized into a "living being," which is ultimately to realize itself as the "life-giving Spirit." (Beatrice Bruteau)
Homily
"Mary, Mary, quite contrary. How does your garden grow?" Which Mary, we might ask? They're often confused. None more than Mary Magdalene. Today, however, she's confused. First by her visit to the empty tomb. Then her frantic message to the other disciples. To her brave return to the tomb — the scene of a crime she thinks. And then the Stranger appears. He asks the same question the angels had: Why are you weeping? At first she thinks he's the culprit: “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”Perhaps he smiled at the thought she would carry a dead body all by herself. To where? But then he turns dead serious. No more disguises. Her name triggers recognition: “Mary!” Of course she wants to embrace him. But she's told, Do not hold on to me. They are, it seems, on a new footing.
But what of the garden where all this take place — where John places the whole story, from the crucifixion, to the burial, to the resurrection? He never does anything without a hidden, deeper, meaning. So which garden is this really? Well, there's only one choice: the Garden of Eden. There's something about this story that hearkens back to paradise. And another woman who had not yet heard her name.
But it's not just Mary Magdalene. There's another Mary — the mother of Jesus — notably absent from the story. She too is unnamed. Jesus refers to her simply as "woman" — at the wedding feast of Cana and then at the foot of the cross. What might these two Marys, so often seen as contraries, have to with each other?
Well, they are both women of Eden. But in different ways — at two different points in the story from Genesis. The mother of Jesus, it seems, assumes the role of Eve — now with a name — after she departed Eden and "became the mother of all the living" (Gen 3:20). For early in Christian tradition the Virgin Mary has been called a "second Eve." In the words of St. Irenaeus, “As Eve was seduced into disobedience to God, so Mary was persuaded into obedience to God; thus the Virgin Mary became the advocate of the virgin Eve” (Against Heresies 3:22:4).
Now Magdalene just might be the "advocate of Eve" before the gates to the Garden were shut, blocked by "cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life" (Gen 3:24). I think it has something to do with an interesting phrase found in both Genesis and in John: the phrase "turning toward." One consequence of eating the forbidden fruit, was the woman's "turning toward" the man (cf. Septuagint "kai hē apostrophē sou pros ton andra sou" in Gen 3:16) — the more common rendering among ancient translators rather than "desire for her husband" as has been common in the modern period. (And oh, what mischief that mis-translation has caused!)
But in this garden, early on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalen "turns toward" Jesus not once but twice — the first time mistaking him for the Gardener and the second time after he says her name, Mary. (Remember the woman in the Garden of Eden did not yet have her name before the gates were shut.) In turning toward Jesus the second time — where the same Greek verb strepheo is used as in Genesis — something changes between them.
And he announces the change — his disciples have a new status. For he is ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. So we might well ask if Mary Magdalene represents a new Eve wherein human relationships are now reordered in the direction of equality, beginning with, and especially, those between men and women. Gone is the consequence of disobedience wherein the woman of Genesis was told the man "will rule" over her. (Gen. 3:16b). Which may well be the deeper meaning of Jesus telling Mary to stop clinging.
By the way, this is not to suggest a marital relationship between Jesus and Magdalene. Rather, it's to highlight an aspect of the new creation brought about by Jesus' resurrection, one that restores to human beings their full dignity made, male and female, in the image and likeness of God.
So on this reading, both Marys are a "new Eve": one the woman who finds a new way to relate to others, beginning with men, she who will one day be called "apostle to the apostles" in a culture where women's testimony didn't count. And the other, the woman who has become the mother of all the living, who've found their way back to the tree of life — her Son — who has unlocked for us the path to eternity (Collect). Both these women show us what was lost in the Garden of Eden has been restored on this Day which the Lord has made.
And that, I believe, is how the garden grows.
[Exegetical note: Cf. Mary L. Cool, John 11-21 in Wisdom Commentary, Liturgical Press, 2021, esp. pp. 512-522 and Jane L. Crane, "Genesis 3:16 and the Character of God," @ https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/genesis-316-and-the-character-of-god/; November 7, 2025].