Jn 20:1-2, 11-18

The Empty Tomb

20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. ² So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

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.

One of God's special gifts to me was being present for Mass in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on this Feast in 1976. It was not as peaceful as I had imagined it would be since the Coptics were chanting their Mass loudly in a chapel not far from the Roman Rite Chapel.  A bit of competition was going on, but it gave me a flavor of the confusion Mary must have felt when expecting to anoint the dead body of Jesus but finding an empty tomb, being confronted by two angels and then eventually embracing the risen Jesus. We have  our ideas, our plans, and God has his. They usually do not neatly match up, but I've always found that God's plans were better than mine so I've learned and am still learning  to take them anytime! Whatever we have planned for today, let us be ready for the unexpected and with Mary be ready for the Presence of the Risen Christ in whatever way he chooses to reveal himself.

Bro. Rene

Dear Jesus, open my eyes and heart to see and accept you in whatever ways you reveal yourself to me today. Amen