Midday Meditation: Ignatian meditation with Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the resurrected Christ (John 20:11-18) Mary is the first one to see him in the “after” of resurrection. They know the body is gone, but haven’t put all the pieces together yet. A confusing moment, indeed—even though death has officially been undone, new life springing up into the world!—and Mary is in tears. Jesus comes up behind her and asks why she’s crying. She speaks out of her grief, and then he says one word: her name. That’s all it takes for her to realize who she is talking to, and to be the first witness to the risen Christ. Spend some time with this scene in the Gospel of John. Read through the passage a couple of times, and begin to enter imaginatively into the scene as if you were there yourself. Perhaps as a bystander, or perhaps from Mary’s perspective. Notice what the garden around you is like, what the stone in front of you looks like, the angels in white. What does the air feel like on your skin? What do you hear? Smell? Where are you in relation to Jesus? What questions do you hold inside you, even as you turn toward him? Do you recognize him—or is he different than you’d remembered, somehow? What feels confusing about it all? Perhaps you watch his interaction with Mary, if you are a bystander, and then see him turn toward you. What questions does he ask you? What do you say? Hear him say *your* name. What is coming up in you? What is your gut-level response? Do you have any sense of invitation, as far as what *you* are being invited to by this interaction, in your own life? It can all be messy and confusing—even resurrection—but let come what comes, and stay there with God today, as this Easter season continues.

Posted by Jamie Bonilla at 2023-05-15 18:11:35 UTC