Surely some must have questioned at one time or another how the disciples related to Jesus after his Resurrection. Today's gospel selection brings us to the Evangelist John's account of how Jesus first appeared to one of his disciples, Mary Magdalene. For some time this Mary could not leave the tomb because "They have taken my Lord ...." Through the blurry vision created by her tears she peers into the empty tomb, and hears one of the two angels ask why she is crying. According to John, as soon as she answered that "they have taken my Lord," she turned around, perhaps distracted by a noise, and saw a man there who was Jesus. However, she did not recognize him. Jesus speaks to her, again presenting a question about why she was crying and who it was that she was seeking. After asking the man, presumed by Mary to be the gardener, Jesus speaks her name. Immediately Mary responds: "Rabbouni!" She must have reached out to take hold of him because he tells her not to touch him "for I have not yet ascended to the Father." Clearly how the Twelve and the close disciples had related with Jesus is no longer possible. As St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:16-17, "Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer... he is a new creation. The former ways of companionship with Jesus were, it seems, over. She cannot touch him because he had not yet returned to his Father. And that very expression seems to indicate that Mary and all of us can touch this Jesus with the Father. As Pope Benedict has written: "If we enter fully into the essence of our Christian life, then we really do touch the risen Lord, then we really do become fully ourselves." "Seated at the right hand of the Father (from the Creed)," the risen Jesus is not far away from us. And, please note this: that distance whether it be far or near is not a measurable distance. The Pope displays, I believe, his own sensitivity and genuine spirituality when he wrote "And this path is not a matter of space travel of a cosmic-geographical nature: it is the "space travel" of the heart ...."
