Day 1114: Tuesday, April 4, 2023

"Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.

The Good News according to John:

Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.

“Because they have taken away my teacher,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

“Mary!” Jesus said.

She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).

On Sunday we celebrate Easter. I find this passage to be the most important to me. How many times has Jesus, our friends, family members, neighbors, children, grandchildren, the homeless, the grieving, called out our name? I can only imagine the names we go by as people, each with the face of the Divine, reach out to us.

Please think about the names we go by... especially as we offer service to others... a litany of life: Friend, Beloved, Sister, Mother, Father, Aunt, Nurse, Medic!, Teacher, Healer, Gardener, House Cleaner, Wise Woman, Wise Man.

We go by so many names in our lives and play so many roles. Each name, each role is linked to that wondrous awareness that our brother Jesus calls us to life.

My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom in all walks of life. My pain is like a river of tears, so full it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names, so I can hear all my cries and laughs at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up, and so the door of my heart can be left open, the door of compassion.

- Thich Nhat Hanh