RESURRECTION IS BEING KNOWN

TUESDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER. ACTS 2:36-41 PSALM 33:4-5.18-20.22 JOHN 20:11-18 When Mary first went to the tomb, she did not enter but as she stooped to look into it, she wept. It seems that neither Peter nor the other disciples had offered her any words of comfort or encouragement when she told them that the body of Jesus is not in the tomb. It seems that even the presence of two angels at the tomb does not assuage her tears and fears. It is her encounter with Jesus that changes her attitude. The angel said to her, " Woman, why are you weeping? " Jesus also said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? ", but Jesus would later call her by her name, Mary. Mary thinks that Jesus is a gardener, and without knowing she has correctly identified Jesus as the gardener because the work of a gardener is to bring forth new life in a garden, and Jesus, through his resurrection is bringing a new world, a new life and a new creation into being.

The space between being called a woman and being called Mary is perhaps the distance between the cross and the resurrection and the distance between being recognized and being known and Mary recognizing Jesus. When Jesus first calls her woman, he is inviting her to represent not just Eve who was driven out of the garden in a sad situation, but all people, men, and women who have lived unable to see God until God is made known in Christ. But then Jesus moves beyond recognizing her as a symbol of representative but instead receives her as a person, as someone he knows and loves by calling her by her name. And that personal address assures personal knowledge and acceptance and, thereby, makes all difference. Known, she knows. Seen, she can see. Loved, she loves and then goes and tells what she has seen, known, and loved. We live at a time when, increasingly, we seek to be recognized, noticed, friended, acknowledged, retweeted, liked, talked about, and accepted. Despite wanting all this attention, there is more risk in being known than in merely being recognized, and this is based on the differences that we like emphasizing on.

After the encounter with Jesus, Mary Magdalene goes to tell the disciples about that encounter because of what they share in common, that is, their faith in Jesus. She does not overemphasize how they believe differently-when she initially told the disciples about the empty tomb, they did not accompany her back to the tomb.

In a world that craves recognition, let us not forget that being known is what matters because it means being seen and being accepted by God as we are in our struggles of faith thus calling us into a new reality.