Word to the Wise
Tuesday, April 2, 2024 - Octave of Easter - Tues
[Acts 2:36-41 and John 20:11-18]"Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and then reported what he had told her. [John]
TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2024 TUESDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER
[Acts 2:36-41 and John 20:11-18]
"Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and then reported what he had told her. [John]
The post-resurrection appearances of Jesus were a challenge to his disciples. The empty tomb was not, in and of itself, evidence that he had risen from the dead. It was "seeing" him that made the difference. In the story recounted in today's gospel passage, Mary Magdalen did not, at first, recognize Jesus. She thought he was a gardener! It was only when he spoke her name that she understood. In other appearances, Jesus shows his wounds or asks for something to eat in order to convince the disciples that he is truly risen. St. Paul, in the First Letter to the Corinthians 15:36-58, speaks to the reality of a resurrected body. "If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one." [15:44] His encounter with Christ was not with the Jesus whom the apostles and Mary Magdalene had known, but with the risen Christ, and he was temporarily blinded by the experience! The resurrection body is a different version of the person.
Our faith rests in no small part on the witness of the disciples, including Mary Magdalen, and their subsequent proclamation of their experience after Pentecost. The first scriptures for Mass during this week are taken from that post-Pentecostal preaching. It is through that preaching that we are challenged to "see" the Lord. In our baptism, he calls us by name. The proclamation of the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead would be worth the lives of the first preachers. Is it worth ours? AMEN
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