A Reflection for the Saturday in the Octave of Easter

When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week,
he appeared first to Mary Magdalene,
out of whom he had driven seven demons.
She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping.
When they heard that he was alive
and had been seen by her, they did not believe (Mk 16: 9-11).

Find today’s readings here.

Their friend, the one they had given everything up to follow, has just been executed, and they are grieving. When Mary Magdalene tells them that Jesus is, in fact, alive, can we really blame them for not believing her?

But apparently Jesus did. 

When he finally appears to the disciples, his first words are not of comfort or joy. Instead, Jesus rebukes them.

But later, as the Eleven were at table, he appeared to them
and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart
because they had not believed those
who saw him after he had been raised (16:14).

On first reading, this seems a bit harsh, cruel even. Who would believe this news upon first hearing it? Would any of us? 

But I don’t think Jesus is jealously berating them for not believing in him. Rather, he is chastising them for not trusting each other. Mary has seen and believed, but when she tells the disciples the good news, they do not listen to her. This is Jesus’ first and foundational lesson for what it means to be a church. Yes, faith in God is fundamental, but so, too, is faith in one another. The good news spreads from person to person, from generation to generation, but only if we trust the word of those who share it. 

That is a lesson the church has been re-learning over the past century. The Second Vatican Council called on leaders to listen to the sensus fidelium, the sense of the faithful. And through the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis called on us all to build a listening church, a church where the voices of the poor, of the estranged, of women—women like Mary—are truly heard. We cannot be the church Jesus calls us to be without trust, without believing not just in the words of the Creed but in the people around us who say them every Sunday.

Ashley McKinless is an executive editor at America and co-host of the ‘Jesuitical’ podcast.