No Sugarplum

Dealing with the hard saying of Jesus

04/23/2019

John 20:11-18 Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me,for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then reported what he had told her.

Every now and then in the scriptures Jesus says something that makes us wince. It’s not what we expected and we don’t get very excited about it. Let me give you three quick examples. In Matthew 23:27, Jesus scolds the scribes and Pharisees, saying: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.” Hard to imagine, gentle, meek, humble Jesus being that critical and caustic, but he was. The second was the scathing correction of his closest companion, St. Peter. In Matthew 16:23, Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” I cannot imagine saying that to my worst enemy, let alone to my dearest friend. But Jesus did. And a third instance was about the Eucharist, where Jesus commanded his disciples to eat his Body and drink his Blood. At the end of John 6, we read people’s reaction: “Then many of his disciples who were listening said, ‘This saying is hard; who can accept it?’” Indeed, many people criticize the Catholic Church for taking Jesus as his word in John 6, and they wince. If we’re honest, we all find that saying rather hard to accept, and we probably wince at it, too.

In his book called Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI said this about Jesus’ shocking sayings: “This new goodness of the Lord is no sugarplum” (p. 67). In other words, Jesus is trying to change our human sensitivities into heavenly sensibilities. And when he does that, we wince.

Today’s gospel presents another instance of Jesus’ sayings that was no sugarplum. Jesus meets Mary at the tomb on Easter Sunday and she is weeping. Her Lord whom she loved had died. After a brief exchange of pleasantries where she mistakes the Messiah for the gardener, Mary exclaims in joyful recognition: “Rabbouni!” which means teacher. And then she did the most human thing we all would have done, she embraced him. But again, Jesus utters surprising and even shocking words, saying, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.” Wow, what a rejection. We can see here what Pope Benedict meant when he said salvation is not a sugarplum. It is not always sweet but sometimes it is bitter. But I think what Jesus is trying to do is transform our human sensitivities into heavenly sensibilities. Just like Jesus corrected the scribes and Pharisees, and his friend Peter, and his disciples, so no he corrects Mary Magdalene. He’s saying in effect: try not to think and feel and act like human beings do, but like the heavenly Father does. And when we do, we wince.

I am so grateful to the people of God – all of you – for teaching me not to wince at Jesus’ hard sayings. I want the sugarplum, but you teach me to taste the castor oil. I marvel at how some of our parishioners can converse rather casual about death. The thought of my own demise makes me wince. Some people joke about who they want to be next to in the columbarium and who they don’t want to be next to, and they help me to overcome my fear of death. No sugarplum. Sometimes I feel guilty for not being able to go home and visit my parents more often, especially as they are getting older and need help. But my parents remind me that my parish and pastoral duties should be my priority. No sugarplum. I am humbled as I watched our RCIA candidates struggle with the hard sayings of Catholic teaching and tradition all year long. And they still joyfully “swam the Tiber” and entered the Church last Saturday. No sugarplum. I could give you endless examples of how you inspire me to transform my human sensitivities into heavenly sensibilities. And I just want to say thank you, and I feel very humbled.

You are like the two angels in the gospel today who consoled Mary Magdalene, and you say to me, “Why are you weeping?” Or, rather you are the angels who say to me, “Why are you wincing?”

Praised be Jesus Christ!