After Jesus, the individual most present in our Easter readings seems to be Mary Magdalene, the focal point of the gospel not only at the Vigil Mass on Saturday and on Easter Sunday,
but also on Monday and Tuesday of this week.
Mary of Magdala’s deep sorrow, followed by ecstatic joy, demonstrates how
– with just a little tweaking of focus – we, too, can witness and give witness
to the power of God’s love revealed in the death and rising of His Son.
You know John's version... Filled with sorrow, Mary Magdalene goes to the
tomb, weeping. Looking inside, she finds, not Jesus, but two beings in white, and her pain is palpable
in her statement to them: They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know
where they laid him. Turning,
she sees a man she believes to be the gardener, and she questions him as
well: Sir, if you carried me away, tell me where you laid him, and I will
take him. It is only when Jesus
pronounces her name, Mary!, that she
recognizes the gardener as her friend. Jesus’s voice causes
her to refocus, allowing Mary to cast off her despair for a newfound joy,
as well as a mission: Go to my brothers and tell them, Jesus
says.
Like Mary Magdalene, we too
sometimes experience cloudy vision, an inability to focus, to recognize God’s
presence in our lives. Perhaps we too are sorrowful, or simply too distracted
to pay attention to our Lord, dwelling in us, dwelling in those around us.
Today, may we endeavor, like Mary, to reflect on what Jesus’ voice
sounds like, accustoming our heart’s capacity to listen for that sound, an echo
of God’s love for us. May we strive to
refocus, to open the eyes of our hearts to see what we might be missing: Jesus himself, present, in our midst – so
that, like Mary, we might go out to all the world to say, I have seen the Risen Lord!
Image source (upper): "Noli me tangere," Fra Angelico, ca. 1440
Image source (below): Notre-Dame de Paris, side panel.
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