Jesus looks at me and speaks my name!  Can I hear him?

Do I have a sense of the depth of his love for me as he speaks my name?

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Acts 2:36-41

 Let Israel then know for sure

That God has made Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified.”  When they heard this, they were deeply troubled. And they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What shall we do, brothers?”

 Peter answered: “Each of you must repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins may be forgiven. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.   For the prom­ise of God was made to you and your chil­dren, and to all those from afar whom our God may call.”

 With many other words Peter gave the message and appealed to them saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”   So those who accepted his word were baptized; some three thousand persons were added to their number that day.

 

Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20 & 22

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

 

 ＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊     

Gospel: John 20:11-18

 Mary stood weeping outside the tomb; and as she wept, she bent down to look inside. She saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head, and the other at the feet. They said, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She answered, "Because they have taken my Lord and I don't know where they have put him."

As she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not recognize him. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?" She thought it was the gardener and answered him, "Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and take him away."

Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned, and said to him, "Rabboni!" – which means Master. Jesus said to her, "Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the ather. But go to my brothers and say to them: I am ascending to my Father, who is your Father, to my God, who is your God."

 So Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord, and this is what he said to me."

 

 Gospel Reflection：

Re-Creation

Everything in today's gospel narrative points to the new Garden of Eden where a new creation, re-creation, unfolds. We are in a new garden of Eden, hinted at by the references to the gardener. Garden is where new life is born and tended to.

If the devil initiated the breakup then, here the angels initiate the reconnection with the "woman", Mary. She mistakes Jesus for the gardener; but he indeed is the new gardener, the new Adam. The call and response – "Mary" "Rabboni" – re-establish a broken relationship in affirmative belonging and mutual recognition.

The prohibition to touch, while mimicking Eve's mischievous addition to God's prohibition, corrects the temptation to grab divinity by force instead of receiving it in gratitude. The fatal expulsion then is replaced now with a total affirmation of sharing Jesus' own God and Father as our own God and Father. If Eve brought disastrous news to Adam, Mary now brings the good