DO YOU RECOGNIZE ME?

In the TV series Undercover Boss, bosses of chain businesses go undercover to their own stores in various locations and engage in various jobs around the store to interact with the employees. Depending on the employee's impression, it will prove to the boss how important the job is to them. In the end the unsuspecting employees are called in and the boss reveals their identity by asking, “Do you recognize me?” then shares the experience of their time together. The employee’s response is often tearful gratitude as the boss shares lessons learned and gives new opportunities.

In the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene is the first person to discover the empty tomb of Jesus and experience of the risen Jesus. What follows is a “recognition story,” describing the stages in which Mary comes to recognize who Jesus really is. At first, she thinks Jesus is the gardener. He tenderly calls her by name, in her native Aramaic tongue, the name she was called only by those most intimate with her, Miryam. Leading to the second stage: with encouragement from the risen Jesus, she responds, Rabbouni meaning “my beloved teacher” a recognition of her old teacher.

Naturally, Mary reaches out to Jesus, but she is told not to touch. Msgr. Charles Pope describes the exchange this way: “Don’t go on clinging to what, in me, is familiar to you. Step back, take a good look, and go and tell.” Christ wants to be more than physically present to her. He tells her, “go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” (Jn 20:17) Mary finally comes to recognized the risen Lord, then runs to announce this good news to the disciples.

These recognition stories were told to encourage believers not to become discouraged if they cannot fully comprehend the reality of Jesus’ resurrection when they first encounter it. It is a mystery that unfolds in stages. For Mary, she had to let go of her past understanding of Jesus (Rabbouni) before she can grasp the deeper meaning of who he really is, her Lord and her God.

Because of Easter, the Lord’s relationship with Mary has changed and deepened, as with each of us, as He reveals His identity as our Lord and our God. As we approach this mystery, Christ, our undercover boss, under the form of bread and wine asks, “Do you recognize me?” As Mother Teresa puts it, “He makes Himself the hungry one, the naked one, the homeless one, the one in prison, the lonely one, the unwanted one…”  It’s been said, “If we can’t recognize Him in these people, we won’t be able to recognize Him here, in the bread and wine, transformed into His body and blood.”

As the risen Christ reveals himself to us in our daily lives, how will we respond?