Called By Name

 

  Jn 20:11-18

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

¹¹ Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ¹² and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

¹³ They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” ¹⁴ At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

¹⁵ He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

¹⁷ Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

What if I were weeping outside the empty tomb and heard Jesus call my name?  What would be my reaction? Joy? Relief, a heart bursting with love?  All of these? And would I not be so fortified, so strengthened in faith and love that nothing would ever discourage me again? That would be my hope, my goal. This Octave Week of the Resurrection challenges us to deepen our faith in the Risen Jesus and to joy in his victory over death and sin and his call to share that with me. He calls us each by name as he called Mary and invites us to believe with a rock-bottom, lasting faith and trust in his love, no matter how bleak the circumstances we face at this moment.  He is truly risen and shares that risen life with us. May we live each day with joy, fortified by the Risen Jesus.

Bro, Rene

Dear Jesus, you have truly risen from the dead. Why should I fear or be sad? Let me live joyfully in OUR new life! Amen.