In today’s gospel reading on this Tuesday of the Octave of Easter, we hear the famous and beautiful story of Mary Magdalene, the ‘Apostle of the Apostles.’ 

Here in this scene, her crucial role is evident and there are beautiful lessons and invitations in this story for us.  She ends up experiencing Christ / experiencing resurrection / experiencing a transformation – during a time that was a deeply sad and low point for her, missing Jesus whom she had such a deep and meaningful relationship, and, unsure where his body was that she was planning to prepare for burial.

But, she shows persistence as she stays at the tomb, and therefore, staying present to difficult feelings of a difficult situation.  Jesus speaks directly and personally to her, but she didn’t recognize Jesus at first; rather she was set on her own understanding of how things should normally go.  Once she does set aside her expectations about how things ‘should’ be, Mary Magdalene recognizes Jesus.  She has a crucial job to do, given by Jesus, to share the resurrection news!  She is an essential piece of the early and future Church as she bears witness that Christ is alive! 

There are so many beautiful lessons, questions and invitations for us in Mary Magdalene’s story at the tomb on that first Easter morning!  As I praying with the story of Mary Magdalene today, I found heart recalling a significant time of memory and grace for me.  I began to pray with the experience of a recent “cannonball moment” for me (cannonball moment  = a term used, in Ignatian reflection circles, to describe an event that completely shattered one’s plans and understandings and ended up leading one closer to God in an unpredictable way ….similar to how St. Ignatius experienced his conversation after a cannonball shattered his leg during the Battle of Pamplona, which necessitated a long and intense recovery for him). 

About six months ago, I found myself in what seemed like a foreign setting: a spacious room in the local hospital, in the neonatal intensive care unit, looking into an incubator-type of contraption that my newborn son was carefully laying in.  I was in disbelief, confusion and shock that my baby boy had needed to be delivered eight weeks before his due date, with no forewarning or clear explanation.  I spent many hours…then many days…. holding him up on my chest, learning the ins and outs of the monitors and the fluctuating numbers on the screens, and experiencing disappointment and impatience at his seemingly slow growth.   I was hurting and mourning the loss of what I imagined what the labor and delivery process would have been, two months later.  It was difficult to have hope after an experience of significant loss in which the present reality was a lot worse than I had hoped for.  I felt a bit like Mary who had been looking for Jesus and not finding him. 

The experience of grace, of recognizing God’s hand in all of this, didn’t come immediately, and didn’t come at one moment as it seems to have come to Mary Magdalene on that first Easter Sunday morning.  Mine came slowly over the course of the weeks, as my heart softened, my humility grew and my trust began to take root.  I listened to the familiar faces of the charge nurses, the lactation consultant, the speech therapist (feeding expert), the physical and occupational therapists, the neonatologists, who, through their daily conversations with me about newborn growth and development, bore witness to the miraculous mystery of premature infant development.  It was as if they were like Mary Magdalene, the ones who had witnessed, and were convinced of, God’s faithful promises.  And, they hopefully, positively, confidently conveyed that Good News to me in their daily conversations.  I was skeptical at first, until I began to see their prophetic predictions come true.  My son did figure out how to eat and the healthy growing baby boy was sent home from the hospital with joy, hope and jubilee (and he is continuing to grow and thrive several months later!).

Here are some questions that I invite us to reflect on as we enter this Easter season, this season of transformation, where we see with new eyes, where we broaden our understanding of what God is capable of…

• When do have we heard our names being called, like Mary Magdalene, in the midst of desolation, confusion and despair? 
• When have we noticed grace, even in small ways, and then been tempted to dismiss it or downplay it as something else?
• When have we been tempted to run away? 
• When have we been invited to witness God’s amazing work in our lives?
• How do I share the ways God is present to me, with others?

Let us pray for each other, for our loved ones and community members, for our world.  Be our inspiration, Mary Magdalene, as we seek to know Jesus more intimately, as we search for Jesus, and as we continue to be invited to love and accompany others in our suffering world, particularly in this pandemic crisis.