holding on

"Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping.

And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb

and saw two angels in white sitting there,

one at the head and one at the feet

where the Body of Jesus had been.

And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?"

She said to them, "They have taken my Lord,

and I don't know where they laid him."

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,

but did not know it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?

Whom are you looking for?"

She thought it was the gardener and said to him,

"Sir, if you carried him away,

tell me where you laid him,

and I will take him."

Jesus said to her, "Mary!"

She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni,"

which means Teacher.

Jesus said to her, "Stop holding on to me,

for I have not yet ascended to the Father.

But go to my brothers and tell them,

'I am going to my Father and your Father,

to my God and your God.'"

Mary went and announced to the disciples,

"I have seen the Lord,"

and then reported what he had told her."

(Jn 20:11-18)

I love the Mass readings in the Easter season. They're so beautiful, so layered with meaning - and great for meditation, lectio divina, etc. I love to read/listen to these passages and sometimes, imagine myself there, imagine what that must have been like. How incredible would it have been to share the experiences of St. Mary Magdalene, or St. Peter, or St. John? Or the Blessed Mother? 


In the Gospel passage from today's readings, Jesus says to Mary Magdalene: "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" And then how does he respond to her words, that are so full of sorrow, so full of love? 


He calls her by name. "Mary!" And she turns, knowing it is him.


But then, Jesus does something that seems funny. He tells Mary, "'Stop holding on to me...'"
It may be a fair assumption that Mary was physically holding onto Jesus, hugging him, and he was telling her not to hold on to him, because he was indeed going to ascend into heaven, and then his physical presence would be gone (except, of course, in the Eucharist, but that's kind of beside the point here). 


After all, what would you do if you had just realized you were standing next to someone very important in your life, whom you thought you had lost - and who had just called you by your name, that ultimate person-to-person recognition? I know I'd be hugging them, and not wanting to let go - and I think that's a pretty normal human reaction. 


I can also see how this could have been meant in a more figurative sense, too - Jesus was telling Mary not to hold on to his physical body... meaning not to hold on to physical, visible things. And I'd say that is just as true for us - I think Jesus often tries to teach us not to hold on to visible things, but to hold on to invisible things, instead... in other words, to be as detached from this world as possible - to live with our minds and hearts raised to God - to things that are eternal, not things that are temporal. So, it's okay to hold on - so long as we hold on to the right things. 


+peace, and all good!