Thursday, July 21, 2016

St. Mary Magdalene, Friday, 22-07-16

Songs 3:1-4 / John 20:1-2, 11-18

One of the amazing technological developments is the advancement of artificial intelligence with its identification and recognition abilities.

So on the mobile phones there is the fingerprint recognition, on the laptop there is the face recognition,

And then there is the automatic speech recognition (ASR) which is used in speech-to-text programs, but the user is required to "train" the ASR program to recognize their voice so that it can more accurately convert the speech to text.

But it still cannot be compared to the human voice with its unique individual accent, inflections, intonations, as well as the one listening to the voice and making a discernment and a response to the voice.

This is profoundly expressed in today's gospel, when the risen Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene.

She initially did not recognise Him physically and even though she heard His speaking to her, she thought He was a gardener.

It was only when Jesus called her by name, "Mary", that she knew who He really was.

Certainly it was the voice, but it was also the voice that expressed the name, and in such a personal way that Mary knew it was Jesus.

Just as it was with Mary Magdalene, the Lord Jesus calls out to us and speaks to us in a very personal way. He calls out to us in a way that we will understand.

So even though we may not see Jesus physically, He will call out to us in a very personal and loving way as He did with Mary Magdalene. May we respond to His call as she did.