Today's Gospel Reading -- John 20:11-18Today's gospel story is not new. Consider this question? What does Mary Magdalene represent to you? How does she help you? Yes, you! What do you do, what are your inner-most feelings when your heart is broken, when you feel totally bewildered, when you experience loss, when disappointment causes pain, when confusion causes sleeplessness or when you simply want to draw closer to God?
"Why, God, why aren't you giving me an answer, a peaceful heart? Why are my plans failing? Why do I doubt? Why can't I beat that one fault or sin that hurts so badly? Where are you when I need you?"
What is a gardener? A person who tends a plot of good earth to cultivate flowers, vegetables or fruits is a gardener. S/he tills the soil, takes some usually very small seed and with much expectation and vision of a bumper crop plants the seed and nurtures this work, the garden of her/his planning.
Who is the gardener of your heart? How does God use other people or events to plant the seeds you need in your heart? How does God send the Holy Spirit in those Magdalene moments of your life of searching that you might experience?
Mary Magdalene had to ask, had to admit to herself and others that she was hurting, that she needed help to find what (who!) she was missing. Only when she asked the man she believed to be the gardener, only then did she begin to find what she was seeking.
Do you listen for God's answers in your searchings? Do you recognize the gardener who wants to till the soil of your heart? Do you see this Mary Magdalene moment as a key that can unlock so much of your heart? Perhaps, as never before, Mary Magdalene is God's gardener for your heart when it is seeking to find his help.
"Why, God, why aren't you giving me an answer, a peaceful heart? Why are my plans failing? Why do I doubt? Why can't I beat that one fault or sin that hurts so badly? Where are you when I need you?"
What is a gardener? A person who tends a plot of good earth to cultivate flowers, vegetables or fruits is a gardener. S/he tills the soil, takes some usually very small seed and with much expectation and vision of a bumper crop plants the seed and nurtures this work, the garden of her/his planning.
Who is the gardener of your heart? How does God use other people or events to plant the seeds you need in your heart? How does God send the Holy Spirit in those Magdalene moments of your life of searching that you might experience?
Mary Magdalene had to ask, had to admit to herself and others that she was hurting, that she needed help to find what (who!) she was missing. Only when she asked the man she believed to be the gardener, only then did she begin to find what she was seeking.
Do you listen for God's answers in your searchings? Do you recognize the gardener who wants to till the soil of your heart? Do you see this Mary Magdalene moment as a key that can unlock so much of your heart? Perhaps, as never before, Mary Magdalene is God's gardener for your heart when it is seeking to find his help.
The spiritual life does not remove us from the world
but leads us deeper into it.
(Fr. Henri Nouwen)
but leads us deeper into it.
(Fr. Henri Nouwen)
