En la vida diaria, no siempre es fácil reconocer al Señor Resucitado. Esa fue la experiencia, por ejemplo, de María Magdalena (Juan 20 11-18). A nosotros también se nos pregunta: “¿A quién buscan ustedes?” ¿Estamos buscando realmente al Señor Jesús? Y ¿le reconocemos, no solamente en nuestros momentos de oración y cuando recibimos la Eucaristía en la Misa, sino también cuando Él camina a nuestro lado en nuestras alegrías y sufrimientos, en la gente que nos rodea, y en las circunstancias y acontecimientos ordinarios de la vida?
Las palabras del Resucitado (“Ve a mis hermanos y diles….”) son la llamada a salir de nosotros mismos y ponernos en camino. No es que comuniquemos lo que tenemos perfectamente claro, sino que, comunicando la Buena Noticia, se va aclarando el misterio de su presencia.
Oremos. “Padre amoroso, que tu Hijo Jesús nos muestre lo que tenemos que hacer y que siga convirtiéndonos a sus actitudes de paciente servicio y profundo amor. Por Cristo que vive y reina contigo por los siglos de los siglos. Amén.”
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St. Mary Magdalene provides one of the examples of a literary device often employed in St. John’s Gospel. The literary device is the use of “gradual recognition,” or misunderstanding which leads to understanding.
Other examples of this device are the conversations Jesus had with Nicodemus (ch. 3), the Samaritan woman (ch. 4), and the man born blind (ch. 9). Each of these episodes shows unclarity about who Jesus is, then (again) a gradual understanding of His person and mission and that He is, indeed, the Messiah.
In John 20, 11-18 we find this played out once again – with St. Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb. She thought at first that Jesus was the gardener, but came to realize He was the Lord. The moment of “full recognition” was when He spoke her name. This has a great deal of resonance with other Scriptures passages. For example, in Exodus 33, 17 God said to Moses, “I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
We sometimes hear about people who have had dramatic, life-changing “conversion” experiences and, if we are honest, we kind of admire such people. We are somewhat in awe that the Lord has touched their lives in such dramatic ways. Many of us, on the other hand, have a faith that is much like a seed that was once planted and it has been gradually and steadily growing for a good long time. In a way, we are constantly moving from a lack of clarity about who Jesus is and what His mission is all about to, let’s call it “fuller recognition.” Does it really matter how our faith has arrived in our hearts and moved our lives? Are lightning bolt experiences any more worthy than the slow, gradual maturing of faith? Either way, the heart of the matter is that God knows us by name. To this we say: Alleluia!
