Can we imagine? (OLMC Reflection)

Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

John 20: 16

    Consider Mary Magdalene as that most remarkable day breaks. She has gone to the tomb early in the morning, has called the disciples – and they have come and gone, yet she remains there, weeping. And when Jesus asks her, Woman, why are you weeping? she mistakes him for the gardener. She doesn’t know him, at least not at first; he has to call her name for her to know – to recognize him. But then he says her name: Mary! 

    Can we imagine how beautiful the sound of our own name would be, when said by Jesus? 

    The Resurrection restores Jesus to Mary Magdalene, to us, to the world, so that we might be moved by the imagination of joyful companionship with Christ… so that we can and must imagine what it would mean to know him, to recognize his presence in our lives daily, in one other, in Eucharist… so that we can and must imagine what is would mean to be known by him, to know intimately the love he holds for us, its extravagance, its wonder, as reflected by the love he shared on the cross… 

And he walks with me, and he talks with me,
and he tells me I am his own…

 And the joy we share as we tarry there,
none other has ever known… 

    For God did so love the world, so extravagantly, so wondrously, that he gave his only Son, gave him not to take him away again, but to make him present in our lives. Yes, God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus who was crucified for us. God has made him the bearer of God’s forgiveness, and the source of the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 

    And while we, like Mary, cannot hold onto him in his resurrected form, we can choose to live in him, to walk with him, to embrace his gift of the Spirit, allowing our soul to wait for the Lord, allowing our soul to open to his presence, allowing our soul to know the joy that comes of knowing the Lord, and being known by him. 

    Happy Easter! 

--Suzanne,
OLMC Reflection,
March 29, 2016

Image source: Bruce Wolfe, Jesus with Mary Magdalene (detail), Mission Santa Barbara, https://smecsundaymorningforum.org/tag/bruce-wolfe/