Tuesday within the Octave of Easter

March 29, 2016 6:30am

Readings: Acts 2.36-41

John 20.111-18

In Chapter 1 of Saint John’s Gospel, the first disciples begin to follow Jesus.

Jesus asks them: “What are you looking for?”

Today’s passage is towards the very end of John’s Gospel.

Here the risen Jesus says to Mary Magdalene: “Whom are you looking for?”

These questions, or maybe this question, frame John’s Gospel.

It is almost as if John sees this as the central question posed by Jesus.

I wonder if Jesus’ advice to Mary Magdalen today is not the best advice for us in answering this question.

Jesus tells Mary “not to hold on to him.”

He wants her and us to realize, above all else, that he is the Son and is returning to the Father.

Jesus wants us to realize that it is the almighty God, the transcendent God beyond this earth for whom we are really looking.

All things on this earth are transitory and incomplete.

The comforts and gifts of the earth are good.

They are really gifts from God.

Relationships actually participate in the life and love of God and are mirrors of that love.

But still, Jesus wants us not to hold on to anything in this world, but to see everything in relation to what or whom we are looking for in the long run of life.

That is the answer or response that he tries to elicit from us in his questions: “What are you looking for?” and “Whom are you looking for?”