TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL

Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. – John 20:11-14

Those two mysterious angels who appeared on Easter morning.  Why two?  Were they waiting for Mary Magdalene or were they simply there?  And where did they go before the arrival of Peter and John?  Were they really there or were they in the imagination of a woman whose grief was made all the more by the disappearance of His remains?

I tend to believe that the writer of John’s Gospel included those two angels to ask the question that was also being asked in the hearts of Peter and John … “Why are you weeping?”

I weep more than I used to weep, not because of a lack of faith but because of the gaining of a mature faith.  And when I weep in quiet times … I can hear that angel … and more often, the Lord … asking me that very question …”Father Charitas, why are you weeping?  Is it because of an experience of loss, that somehow something beloved has seemingly been taken away?  Or is it the weeping of frustration, a frustration that has left your soul tattered and tired?  Or is it the weeping about the cruel, uncaring ways of Man?”

And then always appears … Christ sitting beside me … and we weep together for a while for He is an empathetic soul.  Then the tears subside and we live on.  So often it has the feel of a resurrection experience, not merely a return to the quality of life that was but one somehow matured.

Loved Ones, I pray you each have someone who is sensitive enough to your soul that they will ask tenderly …”Why are you weeping?”  And that someone may appear to be Christ in that moment.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz