Jn 20: 11-18
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved. http://www.usccb.org/bible/approved-translations
In Each Person I Meet Today
When I lived in St. Paul as a novice, we had a landscaping company take care of mowing our lawn. Once, during a reflection at Mass, a fellow novice asked, “What are the names of the people who take care of our yard?” I couldn’t answer him. Every week they mowed. They made our lives easier and better. They were concerned for us in some way. But, I never asked their names–our anonymous gardeners.
In our Gospel today, Mary Magdalene acts differently. She is present to a man she thinks a gardener. In her willingness to acknowledge him, to be present to the moment, to protect the body of and mourn the loss of her friend, it is Jesus that she meets.
How often do I fail to see Christ in others? As we celebrate the Risen Lord this week, let us remember that he lives not only in the stories we read, but in each person we meet.
—Eric Immel, S.J., a Jesuit scholastic of the Wisconsin Province is studying philosophy at Loyola University Chicago.
Prayer
Lord, today will be different. We will treat each person, each situation with the fruits of your amazing announcement: ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Let fear give way to faith; let sadness surrender to promise; and may we be ready to lift up anyone in need of hope.
—The Jesuit Prayer Team