Posted by The WORD in other words (2009) – by Fr. Sem Rebayla, SVD – Nicaragua
Tuesday in the Octave of Easter
When I recently arrived in Nicaragua, some people in my parish branded me as orgulloso, a snobbish person. It was because as a Filipino, I reluctantly reciprocated their own way of greeting like shaking of hands every time you meet each other, hugging and tapping the shoulders if you have not met for a long period of time, and doing beso-beso is to greeting the opposite sex.
When I returned to the Philippines for a short vacation, I spontaneously extended my hands to friends every time I met them. And somebody jokingly commented: Are you running for president? Touching is not part of our culture.
When Mary Magdalene surprisingly met Jesus alive, she spontaneously held on to him or perhaps embraced him. But Jesus was quite snobbish this time, and told Mary: “Stop holding on to me, please.” I wonder why Jesus did not allow Mary to touch him, while he offers himself to be touched by Thomas later.
Although Mary was not allowed to touch him, she grabbed the opportunity to be the first preacher (proclaimer) of Jesus’s resurrection. Mary did not say “I have touched the Lord,” but rather, “I have seen the Lord” and she believed in Him.
Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the risen Lord tells us that he is not a God to be touched anymore but to be preached and believed. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we touch and see the risen Jesus. For us today, one of its challenges is to touch other people’s lives so that they may see Christ in us. In so doing, we too preach the risen Christ.
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