Tuesday within the Octave of Easter
April 22, 2014
8:30am
In today’s gospel, Mary Magdalene
does not at first recognize the risen Jesus.
Jesus asks why she is weeping,
Mary responds, and then Jesus simply says: “Mary.”
And with that, with Jesus simply calling
her by name, Mary recognizes him and believes.
I ask myself: how can that happen
for us?
How can we hear Jesus calling us
by name?
I have 2 ideas.
First, in prayer, maybe it is
important for us first to call Jesus by name and talk with him in prayer.
Mary turned and looked at this
person and engaged in conversation, even though she did not recognize him.
I am thinking that in a sense,
the first step is up to us.
We need to open ourselves to God,
to want a relationship, a personal relationship.
If we do that, we may hear and
feel Jesus calling us by name and speaking to us personally.
We may experience that personal
relationship with him.
We, like Mary, may be awakened to
faith or to a firmer and fuller faith.
And the second way is through
others.
Other persons of faith may be
Jesus for us.
Their calling us by name and
speaking to us personally may awaken us to Jesus being present and alive with
us.
God usually acts in ordinary,
human ways, and that includes through those who are in our lives.
So, we need to do this for one
another.
We need to call one another by
name, to enter into relationship with one another and in that way we can awaken
that sense of Jesus’ presence and awaken faith in one another.
These are my thoughts from Jesus
simply speaking the name “Mary.”
