Philip was a young man I met years ago. He had been involved in the drug scene and when he realised it was futile chasing fulfilment there, he headed to India, looking and searching for what he didn't know. Later returning to England, he went to work with a Christian group whose work was on the streets with people who had nothing. He said that as his love grew for those he assisted, he discovered God's presence in the most broken and most poor. Love had helped him to see but if you asked him how, he couldn't say. It was just that his love grew and that helped him see more clearly.I love John's accounts of Jesus's appearances post resurrection. It seems some were able to see and others weren't. There's shock, fear, anxiety and shame but most beautifully there's love. It is love that sends Mary Magdalene to seek the body of the Lord. She wants to anoint his body and prepare it for burial. Love, pure love. The other disciples stay locked inside worlds of pain and broken dreams yet love looks and searches. In response to her story of the empty tomb, Peter and John run to see if it is true and find everything as she said. Peter goes into the tomb but the disciple Jesus loved, having arrived first, waits for Peter to enter. Love doesn't need to go in. He sees and he understands.
As Ronald Rolheiser says, "Love grasps the mystery. It is what lets us see and understand the resurrection." Love is the only reality that helps us see and know the risen Christ. Rolheiser adds, "That is why, after the resurrection, some saw Jesus but others did not. Some understood the resurrection, others did not. Those with eyes of love saw and understood. Those without eyes of love either didn't see anything or were perplexed or upset by what they did see."
So do we have eyes of love? Are we searching for him every moment of our lives? Is it because of our love that we are able to see him in ordinariness and brokenness as well as joy and happiness. Christ is risen yet only those with eyes of love will see him. Only those whose love has them searching and looking will find him. Seek the Lord in love and you will most surely find him.