After the disciples had discovered the empty tomb and proceeded home, Mary Magdalene remained behind weeping. At hearing her name spoken she recognizes Jesus who she initially mistook for the gardener and while clinging on to him, she is admonished to let go and to go to his brothers and say to them "I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God." As such, Mary becomes the first evangelist and witness sent to tell the disciples of the risen Christ. The first sermon of Easter is proclaimed by a woman. She is a living witness not to some secret knowledge or new religious experience, but to God's saving act, of the living resurrected Christ. She is charged to go and proclaim the good news, the inauguration of the new covenant, that the world is reconciled to God, recalling the Old Testament prophecy, "I will walk among you and be your God and you will be my people" (Lev 26:12) and "I will make an everlasting covenant with them; and I will bless them and my dwelling place shall be with them… and I will be their God and they shall be my people (Ez 36:26-27).
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