After my brother Tom passed away, I found a couple of journals
he was writing to help him (in his own words) improve the long-term and
short-term memory loss he sustained because of the length of time he was under anesthesia
during his transplant surgery. To help
cope with my sadness at losing my ‘little’ brother, I used his journals as the
inspiration to write a short (80 pages!) book about the special relationship we
had and the memories we shared. I’ve
mentioned the book in this blog before and excerpted parts of it, in particular
the titular entry that Tom wrote with no title, but that I named “The Man in
the Boat”.
When I was through writing the account, I passed out copies
to all of our remaining siblings and asked them for their opinions. Like the four different gospels, each of my
brothers shared their memories of the same stories, but with different little
details. Of course, each brother was
quick to point out that while my tribute to Tom was spot on, I was dead wrong
on some of the smaller details. I don’t
think so. I just remembered them
differently.
In the resurrection account described by John, Mary only
needed to hear Jesus call her by name and she recognized that He was standing
in front of her (John 20:11-18). How is
Jesus calling out to us? The answer requires us to look beyond ourselves.
When I put myself into the sandals of Mary Magdalene, the
woman at Jesus’ tomb in John’s Gospel, I can relate to how she feels. I too have wept because I couldn’t find Jesus
at various times in my life; after my brother Tom passed away, when I lost
jobs, when I lost friends, when I got worried about all of the violence and hatred
in the world. At those times I would
question, “Where are You, Jesus?” To
which He would often reply to me in my meditations, “Where are you, Steve?”
While ‘we are an Easter people’ (Pope Saint John Paul II), we
are also a post-Pentecost people, which means that Jesus is calling all of us to
continue the ministry He began. Only
after we recognize His call to ministry are we able to see what Jesus has been
doing right there in front of us. We’re
healed of our pain, misery and loneliness not by sitting on our couches and
complaining, but by doing something with our pain that helps others heal. (This
seems to be a secret that too few people know, but it should be a normal part
of Christian living.)
In Matthew’s account (Matthew 28:1-10), the women were
fearful until an angel said, “Don’t be afraid!” and Jesus repeated the
message. Fear keeps us from seeing Jesus
and from realizing the plan of redemption that God’s trying to reveal to us. Like He did for Jesus, the Father wants to
redeem our crosses and destructions by transforming them into new lives that
will reveal Jesus to others.
In Luke’s account (Luke 24:1-8), angels said to the women, “Why
do you seek the living one among the dead?” We fail to see Jesus whenever we focus on
what’s going wrong. Only when we stop
clinging to our limited and self-centered perceptions can we notice that God is
leading us into a victorious future.
Listen! Jesus is calling your name. Your resurrection has
already begun!
