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.