22 July 2015 - called by name

Do we have trouble recognizing the LORD?

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.”

Mary Magdalene is in the middle of a dark night. Jesus is taken from her and now that he returns she isn't able to experience the consolation of his presence. She doesn't recognize it.

We often have trouble recognizing Jesus. Do we recognize him in the promise of Moses to the children of Israel?

In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh,
and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread

The LORD gives us bread from heaven just as the psalmist sings. In this bread he gives us himself. Look how closely the promise of the flesh and the bread are connected in the promise of Moses even though it is just a prelude. To us he makes this explicit. He says, "the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh" (cf. Joh. 6:51). Yet we often have trouble recognizing his presence in this bread. He is as close to us as he is to Mary Magdalene but we don't recognize him. Just like the camp of Israel we do not understand what we are given.

In the morning a dew lay all about the camp,
and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert
were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground.
On seeing it, the children of Israel asked one another, “What is this?”
for they did not know what it was.

Let us hear Moses, "This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat." And let us hear Jesus, "the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

Do we still have trouble even knowing the truth? Even after meeting the LORD in the bread of the Eucharist do we still not encounter him? Are we still ships passing in the night, close but otherwise unchanged? How does Jesus help Mary Magdalene to recognize him?

Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew,
“Rabbouni,” which means Teacher.

He calls her by name. He knows her individually. It is easy to let ourselves be lost in the crowd when are cares overwhelm us. The crowd is a place of safe anonymity. But Jesus insists on the encounter. Are we just one among many in the communion line? Or do we realize that Jesus is inviting each of us as individuals to come and to taste his banquet? This invitation to the marriage feast comes not to a group or a crowd or some unknown masses. It comes to each of us by name. As we approach him for Holy Communion let us engage our imagination and hear him calling us forward by name. When we let him speak this word to us we will surely proclaim "I have seen the Lord" together with Mary Magdalene.

This is the bread of heaven, the bread of angels, having all sweetness within it!