In whom am I putting my trust?

In today's first reading, Jeremiah 1: 5-8,  the Lord says to us: "Cursed is the one who trusts in  human beings, who seeks his [her] strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord.  [Such a person] is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth." In other words, if my trust is in human beings and not in God, that is, I have turned away from the Lord, I am in deep trouble!  If I seek my help from human beings only and do not go to God, I will find myself eventually in a desert.  That is what has happened to those who, having engaged in criminal activity, are in our prisons.  This also happens for those of us who occupy the  "prison" of non-life-giving, selfish, sinful choices, hurting ourselves and others.  By repeatedly choosing such choices, our lives enjoy "no change of seasons."  However, when, in hope,  we turn to the Lord from the "lava waste" and from the emptiness, God is waiting to help us out of the mess into which we may have sunk!

"Blessed are they who hope in the Lord," we pray in today's responsorial psalm. "Blessed the [person] who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night. [Such persons are] like a red planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due seasons, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. Not so the wicked, not so"!

What kind of choices am I, are you, making?

"Woman, why are you weeping?"

Happy Easter! Imagine this day! The disciples are in deep mourning over the crucifixion and death of their Lord and Master. Its a bla, bleak, dark, empty day. At this point, the disciples still do not believe what Jesus told them that, in three days, he would rise again. Death would have no power over Him.  

He In today’s Gospel, John 20: 1-9,  Mary of Magdala goes to the tomb and finds it empty. Jesus is not there. Frightened that someone stole the body, she runs to Simon Peter and John and reports the empty tomb. Peter and John dash to the tomb, John arriving first but, out of respect, waits for Peter to arrive and enter the tomb. Peter finds it empty as well, the burial cloths in which the body of Jesus was wrapped neatly folded.  From Peter’s perspective, the body of Jesus is gone.

John enters the empty tomb. “He saw and believed.”

Would you be Peter or John? Would you only see an empty tomb? Are you unbelieving, going about your business today, living your life by celebrating holidays, not holy days? Is Easter only about bunnies and Easter eggs and champagne and Easter lambs to be eaten, enjoyed and then life goes on in a secular, detached, unbelieving way? Is your faith dead or dying, in a weakened state, to say the least?

Jesus, our Lord and Incarnate God, crucified, put to death, has risen. He does so quietly, so to speak, breaking the chains of death, destroying Satan’s power and opening the gates to eternal life for each  one of us.   No crowds of people witness the resurrection, as John reports it. Jesus is risen. While Peter and John went into the tomb,  Mary of Magdala stood outside the tomb weeping.  “As she wept, she stooped to look inside [after Peter and John had left], and saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head, the other at the feet. They said, ‘Woman why are you weeping?’  ‘They have taken my Lord away,’ she replied, ‘and I don’t know where they have put him.’ As she said this she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not realize that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?’  Supposing him to be the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and remove him.’ Jesus said, ‘Mary!’ She turned around then and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbuni!’…” (John 20: 11-16).

For whom or what are you weeping? For whom are you looking? Do you recognize Jesus in your midst? Do you hear Jesus whispering your name? Or is Jesus not someone with whom you have a first-name relationship, a friendship that does not allow you to leave the "empty tombs" of your life until you find Him?

A Devastating Discovery Transformed by a Personal Encounter

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, the apostle to the apostles,  the one Jesus sent to tell the apostles that He had risen from the dead. We pray in the “Collect” of the Mass, “O God, whose Only Begotten Son entrusted Mary Magdalene before all others   (emphasis mine) with announcing the great joy of the Resurrection, grant, we pray, that through her intercession and example we may proclaim the living Christ and come to see him reigning in your glory.”

The Gospel recounts that  first Easter morning. Mary is desperately eager to go to the tomb to give Jesus’ body the proper anointing that was not possible when they took His body off the cross. There was not time before the Passover restrictions would have been applied. So she rushes to the tomb that Easter morn. It is still dark. She finds the stone removed from the entrance of the tomb and the tomb empty.  She stands outside the tomb, occasionally bending in peering into the darkness of the tomb, hoping his body is really there. She sees “two angels in white sitting… one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been.  ‘Woman, why are you weeping?”  Where, O where, have they taken my Lord, she cries out.  The risen Jesus is standing right behind her. She turns and sees him but does not recognize him. “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” “Mary,” He says, and she immediately recognizes Him.

Crucifixion! Darkness! Empty tombs!  Only  gardeners! Nobodies!  The scene repeated over and over again in the history of the world! Crucifixions, scourging, “crownings” with thorns, empty “tombs,” no bodies to be found, the “living” not even recognized they are so downtrodden, beaten, left for dead, unrecognized.  We pass the homeless and hardly steal a glance! Children are in unsafe situations and we hardly notice!  Women and men are being “whipped into submission” and we hardly notice. “Tombs”—no life worth living in neighborhoods and refugee camps across the globe! “Mary,” Jesus says, and the devastingly, dark emptiness of the tomb experience is transformed by a personal encounter! Do I realize that I have the same power among "the tombs" of today?

Enduring Joy

In the  first reading of today’s liturgy, Baruch 4: 5-12, 27-29,  Baruch tells the people not to fear but to remember that the reason that they were conquered by other nations was that they had abandoned the covenant God made with them.  This did not happen, Baruch tells them, because God wanted them to be destroyed, but that they had provoked God by sacrificing to “demons, to no-gods; you forsook the Eternal God who nourished you, and you grieved Jerusalem who fostered you.”  Further on in the reading,  the holy city of Jerusalem—where God dwelt, as God dwells in our Tabernacles--says that with “joy I fostered them; but with mourning and lament I let them go.”

I could not help but think of the times the Lord is directing us and we simply ignore the Spirit’s direction and do our own thing. “With joy,” God says, “I fostered them; but with mourning and lament I let them go.”  God deeply respects our free will and does not ever force us to embrace His will.  God lets us  go to experience the emptiness, if you will, or the frustration of not having followed the way to which God was calling us. It may be as simple as calling a friend, reaching out to someone we slighted and saying “I’m sorry,”  spending some leisure time in the evening with family or community members, listening with an open mind and heart or taking time to study the Scriptures or to do some substantive reading that nurtures our spiritual lives. Or, it may be more serious, like not getting involved with the wrong crowd that leads us into selfish pursuits  or that leads us into violating the rights of another person or of doing that which violates our own personal integrity.  Baruch says to us, then:  “As your hearts have been disposed to stray from God turn now ten times the more to seek him; for he who has brought disaster [frustration, emptiness, pain] upon you will, in saving you, bring you back enduring joy.”