We live in a dehumanizing culture. Technology has increased our capacity to share information, but there is less and less true communion happening between people. Increasingly, we are herded into ideological, religious, and ethnic camps. We are losing our capacity to see people as individuals and unique expressions of the divine image. This depersonalization process tends to shut down the human spirit and the flow of resurrection energy. With these ideas in mind, let us prayerfully return to the resurrection narrative:
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?” Thinking he was the gardener, she 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.
This reading is radical in a number of ways. First of all, the first person the resurrected Jesus appears to is a woman. In Jesus’ time, women were generally treated as mere possessions of men, with little or no social or legal standing. The good news is that resurrection consciousness recognizes the innate dignity of each and every person. Everyone matters, always and everywhere, because everyone is fashioned in the divine image. Collectivism is the antithesis of healthy spirituality. The second radical element of this reading has to do with Mary’s confusion about Jesus and his response to her. Because of her grief and subsequent confusion, she does not recognize her beloved teacher. Jesus responds by speaking her name, and only then does she recognize him. The message is clear: God is aware of each one of us by name. We are all loved individually. Isn’t it true that we come alive as human beings when someone lovingly sees us, understands us, and celebrates us? The resurrection became a living reality for Mary when Jesus recognized her.
If the love that raised Jesus from the dead is going to elevate humanity to a higher, more elevated state of consciousness, we must move beyond our depersonalized categories. We must embrace a soulful form of diversity that excludes no one from the beloved community. We cannot wait for soulful inclusiveness to come from a politician or a political party. It must begin with you and me as we purposefully choose to see people as people, ready to listen to their stories and to see who they are at their depths. This is the way of Jesus, and it as it becomes our way, you and I can help to make the resurrection a universal phenomenon.
Guruji,
You speak to me
Using my name
With the greatest of love.
So may I speak
To my brothers and sisters.
