The WORD in Other Words by Fr Jun de Ocampo SVD (Germany) for Tuesday in the Octave of Easter
Mary of Magdala was no doubt one of the closest followers of Jesus. In the four Gospels, she was mentioned as close to Jesus more than most of them were. When Jesus was a guest in their home in Bethany, Mary chose to simply sit by the feet of Jesus listening to Him, so that Martha her sister who busy in the kitchen complained about Mary’s idleness. That tells us how Mary could have sought all opportunities to follow Jesus wherever He would set His feet on. Mary followed Jesus to the foot of the cross and to the garden where He was buried.
Mary must have loved Jesus so intensely that even Jesus’ death could not stop her from being close to him. But she got stuck with what she witnessed that Jesus died and was buried, thinking that the empty tomb could only mean Jesus’ corpse had been taken away. She seemed to have forgotten that Jesus had the power to be resurrected from the dead, the way He saw his brother Lazarus already four days dead walk out of the tomb.
This Gospel addresses all of us, Christians, today. We could be like Mary of Magdala too, striving very hard to become close followers of Jesus. At a certain point however, we reach a dead end where we think we know more than we do, and consider everything else as just a confirmation of our existing beliefs.
Today let us allow our Risen Lord Jesus to address us personally like He did to Mary and walk her out of her limits. Jesus will break all dead ends in our life and open us to new and dynamic possibilities of what it means to be a Christian.
– Fr. Jun de Ocampo, SVD (Chaplain, Philippine Community Berlin, Germany)
Source – The WORD in Other Words, Bible Diary 2020
