WOMAN WHY DO YOU LOCK UP YOURSELF IN THE PAST (John 20:11-18)
The most dreadful experience in these times of COBVID-19 is to be locked down. It is a situation that creates fear and anxiety. Even a partial lock down like what we are living in Nairobi is not an easy experience to go through. Business is no longer as usual. People are somehow lost. Today I would like to reflect on the Gospel of Jn 20: 11-18 in the line of what we are experiencing, using the “lock down” metaphor. We are looking at Mary Magdalene whose experience reflects the experience of the post- Easter Christian community. Like the whole community, Mary Magdalene is in a state of shock, lost and confused. She is locked up in the past, she would like to revive. In this state of confusion, she goes to look for Jesus as if she wants to bring him back. She cannot let him go.
As she starts her journey, lost and confused, the Risen Lord is waiting for her. But she is so much aggrieved and in pain that she cannot see. And yet the Risen Lord is there present. Two angels are there waiting for her. In biblical terms the presence of the angels is the symbol of the presence of the Divine. Concerned by the pain and sorrow of Mary Magdalene, the Angels ask: “Woman why are you weeping.” Her cry represents the cry of humanity in these trying moments where thousands of people have succumbed to Covid-19 while others are still battling with the disease. It is the cry of whose who feel helpless in the fight of the pandemic! It is the cry of all those who are mourning the dear ones. It is the cry of all those who are locked down and are not free of any movement. It is the cry of humanity today.
Mary Magdalene is still living in the past. Even though Jesus is dead she wants to bring him back at all cost. In a parallel Gospel in Luke 24:5-7, Jesus tells the women “Why are you looking among the dead? He is Risen as he told you.” But Mary is not able to realise that something new has happened. This is what also happens to us when we are confused, lost and locked up in ourselves or in our past, when we are depressed and have lost hope. The story of Mary Magdalene is our story.
As Mary still cannot recognise the presence of the Lord in her concrete situation, Jesus asks her for a second time “Woman are you weeping?” Open your eyes! I am not a watchman of an empty tomb neither am I a gardener. Open your eyes! Oh poor Mary Magdalene! Oh poor humanity! This recalls Prophet Ezekiel with the story of the dry bones and graves. “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we ae cut off completely.” ( Ez 37, 11). But the Lord said “I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people (…) I will put my spirit in you and you will live. (Ez 37, 11- 14).
We have to look at what is happening now and gaze our eyes on the future. This is important in our lives. We do not have to cling on to the past. The resurrection of our Lord brings something new we are invited to embrace the newness of life which is given to us, actually everyday. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad! This is your day! Are you ready to embrace this new day? (Ps 118:24)
Secondly, we do not have to look into the empty tomb but to listen to the voice that comes from the abyss, calling us by name and pointing out towards a new direction. This is what keeps us alive and going. We are constantly called to identify ourselves with that voice of the Risen Lord which calls us by name. We are not “nobodies” in the eyes of the Lord. He knows each one of us by name. We have a specific identity! Can you hear Jesus calling you? He says, come out! I am He. I am your Lord! Upon hearing her name, Mary Magdalene who was confused and had lost any sense of identity wakes up. She suddenly realises that she is in the presence of her Lord and says Rabouni! Master.
Thirdly, Mary needs still to make another step. As she wants to embrace the feet of Jesus, she is told: “Do not cling on me”. Do not hold unto me! Go and tell my brothers the Good News that I am alive. Only those who have been transformed by the Risen Lord are able to be true disciples. That voice of the Lord sets us in motion. Mary becomes now a disciple.
So my prayer is that we may be able to listen to the voice of the Risen Lord, calling us out from the depth of our tombs and sending us forth, as transformed people to proclaim not just a doctrine but as St John would we proclaim “what we have heard with our ears, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have touched with our hands, this is what we proclaim.”
Let Jesus meet us where we are at this moment. Let us allow him to gradually bring us from the past where we are often locked up! He alone can open for us new horizons, full of life and full hope. See something new is happening even in these times of COVID 19. Jesus is risen Alleluia.
Happy Easter
Fr. Maganya Innocent
