|
Monday, May 01, 2006
Alipio: Recognizing Jesus in the commonplace
By Fr. Jose Alipio
Jn 20:11-18
THERE is a wonderful lesson in Mary Magdalene's encounter with the risen Christ. She had come to the tomb early, filled with weeping over the man who had saved her from a life of sin.
Finally, she steeled her courage to peer inside the tomb where she expected to see the battered body of her Lord. Instead, she saw two angels in dazzling robes who asked her why she was weeping. She replied that someone had taken her Lord's body away. Just then she turned and stood face to face with the risen Christ but she did not recognize him at first.
Assuming he was the gardener, she begged him to tell her where they had taken the body of her Lord. It was only when he called Mary by her name that Mary recognized that the stranger before her was really the risen Christ!
The lesson is obvious -- we meet the resurrected Christ in the friend and the stranger before us. We experience the resurrected Christ in the commonplace things of life.
We meet God's life-giving power in the family member whose love sustains us through the years, in the friend who stands by our side through thick and thin, in the stranger who comes to our rescue when we are in need.
We meet the resurrected Christ in the postman who brings our mail, in the garbage collector who picks up our trash, in the grocer who sells us food, in the policeman who patrols our streets at night, in the doctor who treats our aching body.
The resurrected Christ is not confined within the walls of the church nor is he limited to the lives of the saints. He meets us in the commonplace things of life.
(May 1, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
|
