Advent Twenty Three

16th century Dutch tapestry
5th Ave Art Gallery, New York
Metropolitan Museum

Magda was in the street crying.  She looked back into the building and saw two people seated behind the reception desk. They called out to her.

 "What's upsetting you?"

 "The body of my dearest friend, has been taken, and I don't know where."

 A man was approaching her in the street. In vain she called out to him.

 "Do you know where he has been taken?" The man stopped and held out his arms.

 "Magda."

 She looked up, her eyes rising to his.

 "Padre!" she called out. She raced towards him; the briefest contact.

 "I'm not huggable yet," he smiled. "I'm here for now, but soon I will be returning to the Creator. Go and tell all our friends that I am alive."

 Wrenching herself away, she held this duty tight.

 "I have seen our Lord. That's why there is no body. He is alive." Gasping, she explained everything that had happened.

When despair turns to joy in an instant

Two people are there for Mary as she weeps.  These are the people sent to prepare her for a great surprise.  Everything has been beautifully thought out.  The ‘people’ (what the bible calls angels) are gentle and kind.  They remind Mary that Jesus always said he would not remain dead.  We are so set in the ways of this predictable and repetitive world, it is extremely difficult to connect heart with mind; what we have heard with what we believe.  Separation and reunions are said to be the most vulnerable parts of any relationship.  They are times of mixed emotion.  Times of joy, happiness, but also anger, helplessness and worry.  Jesus returns to Mary first.  It is simple.  They are not really allowed to touch.  What would that touch have been like?  I remember the story of the old woman who stretched out her hand and touched Jesus coat as he brushed past.  Touch is essential in the message of love.  Jesus and Mary hugged despite the rules. 

PRAYER  I need your comfort Jesus.  I need to know you are beside me.