Beginning Life Anew
What brings Mary Magdalene to the cemetery at dawn? How has she mustered the courage, knowing that to be identified as a follower of Jesus is to incur the ire of his killers? Is it just raw courage that impels her to go to the burial place? Or is it her own overwhelming need to be close to Jesus and pour out her sorrows?
It is not only courage and sorrow that drive Mary to her Lord's tomb but love. She is there because she loves Jesus. He freed her from seven devils, from which we could infer that she lived a sinful life. These accounts gave rise tot he notion that Mary was once a prostitute, although no solid evidence, supposted this. We may surmise that she was a deeply wounded person and Jesus' love healed her. Bereft of malice or prejudice, Jesus' compassionate love gave her a sense of direction and purpose.
Mary is devastated when she sees that the stone has been moved away from the tomb. She is afraid that the body of Jesus has been stolen. She does not think that Jesus rose from the dead. Neither does Peter not John to whom Mary Magdalene reports the disappearance of Jesus' body: "For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead."
Two persons may look at the same thing yet see things differently. All that Peter sees was the cloth that covered the head of Jesus and the burial clothes. The gospel does not tell us that Peter has come to believe. John sees precisely the same things inside the tomb yet he believes.
When we reckon only with our heads, our outlook is necessarily limited. The moment we think with our hearts, our view of life expands. We are energized; we hope for better things and imagine new possibilities.
John is called the "Beloved" or "the disciple whom Jesus loved." He considers things not only with his head but with his heart, he believes. Though he does not comprehend the good news of the resurrection, in his heart he nurtures the hope that Jesus was not vanquished. John sees beyond the neat arrangement of the cloth that covered the head of Jesus and the burial clothes. He believes that his Master had noabandoned him.
After forty days of Lenten penance, we exult in the joy of Easter, the most important feast of Christendom. But Easter does not bring magical solutions to our problems. Like Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John, we continue to grapple with problems in this life and try to find sense and meaning to painful experiences of loss and death.
Mary Magdalene keeps in her heart how God rescued her from a dark past, healed her of her woundedness and gave her a chance to rise on her feet and begin life anew. John nurtures the Lord's unconditional love and shares it with his disciples. This is the same unconditional love God gives us that we may be healed, rise where we have fallen, and begin to live anew.
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My mom fanning me inside the church.
That was a cool breeze coming from her very hands.
It is not only courage and sorrow that drive Mary to her Lord's tomb but love. She is there because she loves Jesus. He freed her from seven devils, from which we could infer that she lived a sinful life. These accounts gave rise tot he notion that Mary was once a prostitute, although no solid evidence, supposted this. We may surmise that she was a deeply wounded person and Jesus' love healed her. Bereft of malice or prejudice, Jesus' compassionate love gave her a sense of direction and purpose.
Mary is devastated when she sees that the stone has been moved away from the tomb. She is afraid that the body of Jesus has been stolen. She does not think that Jesus rose from the dead. Neither does Peter not John to whom Mary Magdalene reports the disappearance of Jesus' body: "For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead."
Two persons may look at the same thing yet see things differently. All that Peter sees was the cloth that covered the head of Jesus and the burial clothes. The gospel does not tell us that Peter has come to believe. John sees precisely the same things inside the tomb yet he believes.
When we reckon only with our heads, our outlook is necessarily limited. The moment we think with our hearts, our view of life expands. We are energized; we hope for better things and imagine new possibilities.
John is called the "Beloved" or "the disciple whom Jesus loved." He considers things not only with his head but with his heart, he believes. Though he does not comprehend the good news of the resurrection, in his heart he nurtures the hope that Jesus was not vanquished. John sees beyond the neat arrangement of the cloth that covered the head of Jesus and the burial clothes. He believes that his Master had noabandoned him.
After forty days of Lenten penance, we exult in the joy of Easter, the most important feast of Christendom. But Easter does not bring magical solutions to our problems. Like Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John, we continue to grapple with problems in this life and try to find sense and meaning to painful experiences of loss and death.
Mary Magdalene keeps in her heart how God rescued her from a dark past, healed her of her woundedness and gave her a chance to rise on her feet and begin life anew. John nurtures the Lord's unconditional love and shares it with his disciples. This is the same unconditional love God gives us that we may be healed, rise where we have fallen, and begin to live anew.
-----------------------------
My mom fanning me inside the church.
That was a cool breeze coming from her very hands.
posted by Lara Tarranco at 11:23 PM
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