In this section you can find a daily commentary on the Gospel of the Day.

Monday 27 December 2021

St John, Apostle and Evangelist

Word for today
The Gospel of John 20:2-8

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Mary of Magdala goes to the tomb when it is still night, a night with not end, not only because Jesus had been killed, but now his tomb is empty. Mary sees the tomb and runs to meet Peter and John, but her running is desperate, her sweat is mixed with tears, fear, and desolation. Mary Magdalene sees the tomb and thinks: they have taken the Lord from the tomb. This is how an associative mind - which is incapable of vision or faith, which is subject to anger and fear and unwilling to accept - organizes its vision and interior dialogue. Mary Magdalene sees the empty tomb and her mind can come to one and only one conclusion: they have taken (him) from the tomb… and we don't know where they put him. At that point Peter and John both run to the tomb, and they too see that it is empty. The Gospel says that Peter went into the tomb and saw, then John went into the tomb and understood, he saw and believed.
There are three different perspectives in this passage, three different reactions to the same scene of the empty tomb.  Mary Magdalene goes in and sees only emptiness, fear, betrayal, despair.  Peter goes in and sees, he does not despair, but he cannot see beyond, he does not completely realize that the empty tomb is the precise, awesome realization of Jesus' words when he predicted his own resurrection. John goes in, sees and believes; he understands and places the empty tomb in a wider, more comparative panorama. He links that empty tomb to the loving experience he shared with the Master, to the power of His Word which healed every disease and calmed the storms; he understands and sees the whole meaning of that experience. In the empty tomb, Mary Magdalene sees desperation, Peter observes it undecided, John sees the resurrection.
There is not just one way of seeing things, there is not just one way of seeing and reading, of understanding and comprehending that empty tomb. There is never only one way to solve problems, to look at life, to face the darkness of what we do not understand, to improve our life, to love, and to be enlightened by the reality of this life. There is never only one way.