Today's Gospel

Time to Get Personal

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we're exploring the genius of Jesus in the Gospel of the Day. Today's reading is from the Gospel of John 20:1-2 and 11-18. On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to him, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.

And as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lay, one at the head and one at the foot. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have lay him." Saying this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. And Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" Supposing him to be a gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you've laid him, and I will take him back." And Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabboni," which means teacher. And Jesus said to her, "Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." And Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and she told them all that she had seen."

What jumps out at you today? What struck me was a really simple thing, but I think also profound and deeply personal. You know that Mary Magdalene has come to the tomb, and Jesus is not there. And understandably, she's anxious about that, disturbed by that. These angels appear to her, and they say, "Why are you weeping, woman?" What she says to them-- she says, "Because they have taken away my Lord." And what struck me is just the my. "Has taken away my Lord." And a lot of times when Jesus is referred to, he's referred to as the Lord or is referred to as our Lord. He's referred to in informal manner. It's a very informal reference to Jesus.

It's a deeply personal reference to Jesus. They've taken away my Lord. Not they've taken away the Christ, not they've taken away our Lord and Savior. Not that there's anything wrong with all of those things, but I think it's an invitation to us to ask, "Okay, how personal is my relationship with Jesus? How personal is my relationship with Jesus?" A beautiful story, I heard a priest once speak about meeting Mother Teresa and spending time with Mother Teresa. And one day, someone's talking about Jesus, and he noticed that Mother Teresa was blushing as if someone was talking about her beloved because somebody was talking about her beloved.

And so just in those two words, "My Lord," or just in that simple phrase, "Because they've taken away my Lord," I think is a beautiful invitation to renew our personal relationship with Jesus. Have an amazing day, and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.