Today's Gospel

Would You Run to Jesus?

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we explore the genius of the Gospels together. Remember, each day we're listening for a word, a phrase, or an idea that the Holy Spirit uses to capture our attention. Today's reading is from the Gospel of John, 20:1-2, and verses 11-18. Now 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 them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid 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 have laid him and I will take him." And Jesus said to her, "Mary, she turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Raboni," 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 to your Father, to my God, and to your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, 'I have seen the Lord.' And she told them that he had said these things to her.

What jumps out at you today? I think for me it's this image that Jesus is right in front of Mary Magdalene, one of the people who knew him best in this world. He's standing right before her, and she doesn't recognize him in his resurrected state at this point. And why is that? We don't know. That's okay. But I think I look back on my life, and there have been a lot of times when Jesus was standing right before me and I didn't recognize him. Because my desire for something else was so great that I didn't see what God was calling me to because my arrogance about something was so great that I couldn't see Jesus standing right in front of me. I suspect it happens to us all. But let's look at the landscape of our life today and work out where is Jesus standing in our lives today? What is He calling us to pay attention to in our lives today? Don't worry about tomorrow, the next day, the next week, next year. Where is Jesus in the landscape of our life today? What is Jesus beckoning us to pay attention to in the landscape of our lives today? Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.