Turning Around
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”Acts 2:38
Immediately on the day of Pentecost, Peter made know to the Jewish people that the man whom they crucified was indeed the Lord and Christ of God. Some of them grew concerned and they asked, “What are we to do, my brothers? Peter answered them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you.”
The Lord died for us, and God raised Him up on the last day so that we might not only come to believe that He was the Lord but also so that we might come to receive a gift that we could never have imagined receiving: eternal life, life as the beloved sons and daughters of Almighty God. Do we know that? Do we as baptized Christians know that we are the sons and daughters of God? That we have the hope of eternal life and the resurrection of the body? Do we know that? Do we believe that? In Jesus’s own words at the Last Supper, “Do you realize what I have done for you?”
When Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and found that the stone was rolled over and Jesus’s body was not there, she wept. She wept because she did not know where the body went and who may have taken it. In her grief, she had believed that someone had stolen Jesus’s body. It was then that Jesus called her name and we are told “she turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni,’ which means Teacher.” This turning around was not simply one of physical movement, but one of the interior life too. In being reminded of who she was, Mary, the one called, saved, and loved by Jesus her Lord, had come once again to faith. She had come to believe that who was standing before her was not a gardener, but rather the Jesus whom she loved, the Jesus whom she had come to seek, and the Jesus who seeks her.
Brothers and sisters we too have been called by name. Do we know who calls us? Do we come to seek the Risen Lord? In the times when we turn away from Him and choose to go our own way, may we never cover the ears and eyes of our hearts so tightly that we fail to hear the Lord calling out to us. In our despair and hopelessness, grief and pain, sorrow and frustration, may we all remember the still small voice that reverberates within our hearts, the voice that calls us His beloved. Like Mary Magdalene, may we too, once again, turn around and meet the Lord who has come to find us.
For an audio and/or video reflection for today where I share with you the significance of today’s date (April 19th) in my life and its connection with today’s readings, please click here.
