April 07, 2015
Tuesday in the Octave of Easter
1st Reading: Acts 2:36–41
Gospel: Jn 20:11–18
Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she bent down to look inside; she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head, and the other at the feet. They said, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She answered, “Because they have taken my Lord and I don’t know where they have put him.”
As she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not recognize him. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and answered him, “Lord, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and remove him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him, “Rabboni”—which means, Master. Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me; you see I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them: I am ascending to my Father, who is your Father, to my God, who is your God.”
So Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord, and this is what he said to me.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Faith enables a person to derive spiritual benefits from what he suffers. It’s a privilege only a person of faith enjoys. Persons who do not have faith suffer in vain. Their anguish is so much waste of energy and their fears debilitating. But a person of faith gets stronger as he battles with adversities, and becomes bolder as he struggles against his fears.
What a great privilege! Faith is too great a privilege, in fact, to keep to oneself. It would be injustice to the rest of suffering humanity if a person of faith were to keep the harvest of faith exclusive to himself. That is why a person of faith is necessarily an evangelizer, that is, a missionary. The story of Mary of Magdala is instructive. After Jesus told her not to cling to him as he had yet to ascend to the Father, he sent her on a mission. The pattern is obvious: after an initial faith experience follows the manifestation of the person’s desire to commit himself to the task of sharing the fruits of his faith.
Would that the Lord sees the same pattern working in our lives! We have just gone through the grace-filled experience of the Holy Week which culminated in the celebration of Easter. Jesus is risen, and we are all witnesses whereof (Acts 2:32). As beneficiaries of the fruits of the resurrection we are bound to spread its spirit by “walking in the newness of life” (Romans 6:4) and serving God and neighbor in the newness of spirit (see Rom. 7:6). —Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
May comment ka ba sa column ni Father Dan? May tanong ka ba sa kanya? I-type ang BANDERA REACT <message/name/age/address> at i-send sa 4467.