No one ever talks about the sheer trauma that the people at the foot of the cross went through.
Imagine watching as your Best Friend, the Person you love more than anything else in the world, even more than your own life, is ripped away and literally tortured to death in front of you while you are helpless to stop it. Imagine watching Him bleed, bruise, be slapped, punched, scourged, suffocated and pierced. Imagine all of your other friends running away and abandoning you and this Man, leaving you to be one of very few to support not only Him but His suffering Mother whom you also love dearly as He dies.
What are you supposed to do with that? How does anger, fear, and sadness not take over you completely and leave you listless for the rest of your life? What could possibly heal such deep and painful wounds? No amount of talk or time could possibly fix it.
Only one thing could ever possibly cure witnessing such darkness. Resurrection. The Resurrection is the greatest and most powerful of all miracles, and that doesn’t just apply to Christ, it applies to all of us. It is the healing, hope, forgiveness, and joy that has brought new life to all the baptized and the people they serve. Never forget the Resurrection and what it means for all of us. Someday, we are going to resurrect too.
The lives that the apostles, Mary Magdalene, and all of Christ’s friends lived after the crucifixion are miracles in themselves that haven’t been acknowledged enough for what they are. They lived. They grew, they healed, and they spread the greatest message the world has ever heard. We are called to do the same and our lives can be just as miraculous.
