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Gospel: John 20: 11-18
Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb
and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet
where the Body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
She said to them, “They have taken my Lord,
and I don’t know where they laid him.”
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?”
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
“Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,”
which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her, “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.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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I admire Mary Magdalene so much in this Gospel passage. Her soul is on fire with love; she’s obsessed with finding Jesus.
When she reaches the empty tomb, she’s overwhelmed with anxiety: “They have taken away my Lord! Where did they lay him? Where could he be? Give him to me!” she says frantically, as if Jesus belongs totally to her.
Even when she sees the angels inside the tomb, she tells them, “They’ve taken away my Lord!”
I’d imagine her eyes were so flooded with tears that she mistaked them for human beings.
Then when Jesus appears to her, she thinks he’s a gardener. “Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.”
Mary’s desperate. She’s on a mission. She’ll do anything to find Jesus, even if it’s just caring for his body once laid in a tomb.
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Mary shows us what it’s like when love of God takes possession of a soul – Jesus is everything.
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How much of that passion for Jesus do we share with her? How many of our thoughts, words, and actions, or how much of our time, is taken up by Jesus?
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May Mary intercede for us, that we would encounter in our own way the same person she did – Jesus raised from the dead.
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Image credits: (1) Mary Magdalene, by Jonathan Weber (2) Rembrandt, Mary Magdalene (3) JW.org