Alleluia!
“Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord;’ and she told them that he had said these things to her.”
John 20:15-18
Celebrant Alleluia. Christ is Risen.
People The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
“The Book of Common Prayer,” pg. 323
From Easter Day through Pentecost, this is the opening acclamation used to begin worship services on Sunday morning. After the long season of Lent spent in penitential preparation for the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord, we can joyfully proclaim our alleluias!
I think that each line of the acclamation should end with an exclamation point instead of a period, just as an exclamation point is used in the translation of John’s Gospel above when Jesus speaks Mary’s name and when she recognizes Him. At that point in the Gospel, Mary Magdalene becomes the first person to see the risen Jesus. Once she recognized Him, she does as He says and leaves to tell the other disciples.
There is so much emotion in this passage — Mary Magdalene weeping as she believes that the body of her Lord had been taken, and then the elation as she realizes that she is speaking to the risen Jesus.
Hopefully, each of us will embrace the delight felt by Mary Magdalene on that resurrection morning every Sunday during the Easter season as we answer the celebrant’s “Alleluia! Christ is risen!” with our enthusiastic, “The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!”
Collect for Tuesday in Easter Week
Almighty O God, who by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light: Grant that we, who have been raised with him, may abide in his presence and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be dominion and praise forever and ever. Amen.
BCP, page 223
