April 7, 2026 // Tuesday in the Octave of Easter Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: John 20:11-18 Reflect on the Word //  Shamed for my tears, I’d long ago exchanged them for emotional numbness and habits of negative self-talk. This all changed when I went on a healing retreat, and I found myself arrested by an image of Jesus crowned with thorns and weeping. The tears on His cheeks and His loving gaze conveyed an immense depth of sadness. The Holy Spirit used this image to convince me that Jesus, far from shaming my tears, weeps with me when I weep. Since He cries with me, I now freely let my tears flow when I have the need to cry. In today’s Gospel, Mary Magdalene weeps without shame. Peter and John see the burial cloths in the tomb, believe, and go home while Mary Magdalene stays outside the tomb weeping. When she bends to look inside, two angels ask her why, and  she says she doesn’t know where they took Jesus’ body.  Jesus is there too, though Mary mistakes Him for a gardener. Jesus asks her why she weeps and Who she’s looking for. Do her copious tears blind her from recognizing Jesus? Does her inner anguish mute the sound of the voice she knows so well?  Jesus doesn’t scold her for her tears nor for being slow to recognize Him. He listens to her desperation, then simply speaks her name. Something about the way He says her name transports her from the fog of grief to the reality that her beloved Lord is here with her. She responds, “Rabbouni” (or teacher), for He shows her how to live. I wonder how I’ve let my own perception of circumstances blind and deafen me to seeing and hearing Him. Like Mary Magdalene, we can seek diligently for the Lover of our Souls, whether in joy or in pain. Even when we don’t recognize Him, He listens, then calls us by name until we are transported to the reality of resurrection life. He’s alive! As this truth sinks in, we can announce with joy, “I have seen the Lord!” (John 20:18) Relate to the Lord // What tears are you withholding from Jesus? Share your sadness with Him and in prayer see Him weep with you, for you.