In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus speaks to the women who have come to the tomb: ‘And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Hail!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”’

Two things to notice from the account by St Matthew: first, Jesus comes to meet the women as they go seeking the disciples, greeting them with the word, in Greek, ‘Kairete’. It is the same word used by the angel to Mary at the Annunciation. One could say that this is another ‘Annunciation’, this time by the risen Jesus.

Secondly, the message is ‘Do not be afraid’. ‘Fear not’. In all that troubles us, fear not. Jesus has said at the Last Supper discourse, ‘Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me’.  May we learn this trust, in all the circumstances of our lives, and may Christ ‘Easter’ in us, as the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote.