He Calls You by Name

Elizabeth Leon ponders how we, like Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection, must draw close enough to Jesus to hear Him call us by name.

Each Easter, we hear from Jesus in the Gospel of John:

“Woman, why are you weeping?” (John 20:15)

Oh, Jesus, I answer, how long do you have?

I am weeping because I am scared. Because I miss my baby. Because my daughter is rejecting me. Because people are saying mean things about me. Because my marriage and family don’t look at all like I thought they would.

Why am I weeping? Because evil has a grip on my children.

Why am I weeping? Because I love you desperately but fail you.

Because a father is lost and lashing out at me.

Because my kids use drugs.

Because my son died.

Because I don’t have the relationship with my children I long for.

Because I fear life is passing me by.

But then, I keep reading.

Jesus asks, “Woman, why are you weeping?” but then He calls her by name.

She turns and looks at Him and He calls her by name.

I am moved by that single word: Mary.

She does not recognize Jesus until He says her name. His voice thrills her heart and she sees now what she could not see before.

“Rabboni,” she replies. This endearment appears only twice in the New Testament, a sign of their close relationship. I imagine Mary weeping anew as she recognizes her Lord and her God. Tears of sorrow are now tears of joy as she races to fulfil her mission of announcing the Resurrection to the apostles.

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Jesus calls each one of us by name, not just in Baptism, but in the sorrows and disappointments of life. When we weep, He speaks the truth of our identity as beloved daughters. He invites us to see ourselves and our circumstances with His eyes and His heart. He draws us into an intimate relationship with Him.

When Jesus looks deeply into our eyes and speaks our name, our tears of sorrow can become tears of joy.

When Christ calls me by name, my fear is silenced. When I turn to Him in my tears, He receives me again and again. He speaks my name and I am saved. I am seen. I am sent.

I can never be lost when Jesus speaks my name and looks deeply into my eyes. I am only lost if I choose to be lost.

Jesus never rejects us. He knows the reasons why we weep, even when we don’t. He calms our tears. He soothes them. He heals our hearts.

Click to tweet:
I can never be lost when Jesus speaks my name and looks deeply into my eyes. I am only lost if I choose to be lost. #CatholicMom

But we need to do our part. Mary could have stayed hidden away in her home like the apostles, but in faith she wanted to be as close to Jesus as possible, even in death.

Am I willing to sacrifice to meet Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament? In the sacred Scriptures? In the silence of my heart?

Do I make space and time to hear His voice?

Or perhaps I hear Him speak my name, but I am attached to my tears:

attached to my wounds;

attached to my way of seeing the world;

attached to the way I thought my life should go?

Am I willing to stop weeping, hear Him say my name, and let it change me?

This woman, Mary, who was silent when she was caught in adultery, who was silent when she knelt at Christ’s feet and broke open the alabaster jar—she has a voice now. When He speaks her name, she proclaims an unbelievable and amazing truth: "I have seen the Lord!"

My prayer for each of us this Easter season is that we draw close enough to Jesus to hear Him say our name. May our hearts be stirred through our encounter with the risen Lord, and may we too race to fulfill the mission Jesus speaks into our lives.

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