Looking for Jesus

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, the first person to witness to, believe and to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  Very early in the morning,  while it was still dark, Mary went to the tomb, the Gospel, John 20: 1-2, 11-18, tells us. She finds the stone rolled away from the entrance. She enters the tomb looking for Jesus’ body and it is missing. Frantically and in tears, she leaves the tomb and rushes back to the apostles, proclaiming: “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” She rushes back to the burial place. Weeping, she looks into  the tomb and sees “two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been….’Woman, why are you weeping?’ …’They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him’” (John 20: 13). She turns around and sees Jesus looking at her but she does not recognize him until he says her name “Mary.”

Imagine having lost your very, very best friend, your spouse, your son/daughter. He/she dies and you go to the gravesite to put flowers on the grave. The burial place has been dug up and the coffin is gone. Imagine, too, your reaction and that you frantically rush to the parish office to announce your findings.  “The grave of my loved one has been desecrated; the body is gone.” Then you return to the cemetery, peer back into the empty grave and at the bottom of the grave site stand two angels, one where the head of the coffin would have been and one where the foot of the coffin would have been. The angels in unison say to you: “Why are you weeping? Why are you looking for the deceased among the dead.  She/he is risen, living a resurrected life.”   You turn around. Behind you stands your loved one. You do not recognize the person until he/she says your name.  

That is the relationship Mary had with Jesus! She never really lost Him. There He is.  In her excitement and joy, she falls on her knees and clasped His legs, hanging on to Him, not ever wanting to let go! He says to her: Mary, “[s]top holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.  But go to my brothers [and sisters] and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God”  (John 20:  17-18).  And we know the rest of the story:” I will return to take you to myself.”

Remember Jesus' Resurrection and its Significance

“Beloved: Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead,” Timothy asks of us in today’s first reading of Ordinary Time, 2 Timothy 2: 8-15.  There is nothing ordinary in Jesus’ resurrection.  Proclaiming the resurrection in Timothy’s time resulted for many in martyrdom. They were imprisoned and put to death for speaking in Jesus’ name and for proclaiming their belief in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, as it contradicted the story that circulated among the Jews at the time, and to this day,  namely that Jesus’  body was stolen from the grave during the night while the guards slept.  In their minds there was on resurrection. There was no Easter morning.

We might have a difficult time comprehending the seriousness of the charge against those thrown into prison, suffering, as was Timothy, “even to the point of chains, like a criminal.”  In his pain, Timothy proclaimed that “the word of God is not chained.” Nothing would deter Timothy from preaching God’s Word.  Salvation came from the Word of God who died upon the cross and rose three days later so that we, too,  would rise from sin and death to new life in Christ Jesus.  No way would Timothy stop proclaiming that truth “for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, together with eternal glory.”   Timothy goes on to remind us that:

                “If we have died [to sin] with him

                we shall also live with him;

                If we persevere [in being faithful to Jesus]

                we shall also reign with him.

                But if we deny him         

                he will deny us.

                {Even if] we are unfaithful

                he remains faithful,

                for he cannot deny himself.”

Jesus, the Word of God, is faithfulness itself.  He cannot not remain faithful to the Father’s will, namely , that you and are saved from sin and death. 

 For this I was chosen and so were you! What a gift! What love! There is no suffering you and I might undergo  in our efforts to live as Jesus lived that is too much to ask of us given Jesus’ faithfulness to the Father’s will.  Jesus will never, never abandon His mission to save us from sin and death.         How about us?