Fearful Yet Overjoyed

Gospel: Matthew 28: 8-15

The women have some fear at accepting this mission to tell the men about the resurrection of Jesus, and for good reason.  They know that the men won't believe them.  Throughout the Gospels the men have not believed angels about the coming of John the Baptist and Jesus.  They have not believed women about those things either.  The men have not even believed Jesus when he spoke about his impending death and resurrection.  The women know for certain that they will not be believed.

The men will likely be indignant as well.  How could the women be the first to encounter the risen Jesus? How can they be entrusted with passing on this message to others? From that time on the menfolk have made sure the women would be silenced, and that Mary Magdalene's personage would be maligned later in history by the menfolk.  The women have plenty of reasons to have fear at receiving this mission and carrying it out.  

Yet despite the fear, the women proceed with the mission, given added encouragement from the Lord who appears to them to reassure them.  The Lord himself knows the men will not believe the women; they did not believe him!  We too are sent into an unbelieving world to live a life of joy and hope because the Lord is risen.  We too may have both joy and fear, but know we also have the encouragement from the Lord to go ahead anyway, that his presence is with us, and that it is enough.