Episode Transcript  

One

When someone takes a while to recognize

Have you ever gone a long time without seeing anybody, and then, when you finally do see them again, you don’t recognize them at first? It probably happens most frequently with people you knew in school, and then you meet them again later as adults. Maybe they look a little familiar, but you can’t place it. And then they introduce themselves, and it clicks, and you say, “Oh my goodness, I totally didn’t recognize you! It’s like you’re a different person!”

And each time it’s the same feeling, “Oh my goodness, I totally didn’t recognize him! But that is so-and-so, I see it now.” It’s kind of a disorienting experience, recognizing somebody whom, at first, you took to be a stranger. And it’s the experience many people had when they met Jesus after His resurrection.

Two

Failing to Recognize the Risen Lord

Mary Magdalene, the first one to see the resurrected Lord, didn’t recognize Him for a while. She spoke to Him, she thought maybe He was the local gardener, maybe He had taken Jesus’ body somewhere, and all the while she had no idea that the one she was talking to was the one she was looking for. Then He called her by name, “Mary,” and the spell was broken. She saw Jesus and knew that it was Him.

The disciples on the road to Emmaus took an even longer time to recognize Jesus. He met up with them, walked with them, talked with them at length, and the whole time they’re all talking about Jesus Himself but they don’t recognize Him. Then they invite Him into their homes and He takes bread and breaks it and suddenly like a flash they see that it’s Him; it’s been Him this whole time!

Finally, when some of the apostles are out on the boat fishing, a man calls to them from the shore and gives them some fishing advice. Just like years before, a certain man had given these professional fishermen some fishing advice and had filled their nets. But they don’t make the connection. It seems to them like it’s a stranger. But when His advice fills their nets again, yes, it’s Him, how could they have missed it? “It is the Lord!”

Why does it take so many people so long to recognize Jesus after the Resurrection? What’s different? What’s changed? What does it all mean?

Three

“What we shall become has not yet been revealed”

Something was the same, but different about Jesus when He rose again. Like a child who has grown into an adult, you see that it’s the same person, but it takes you a while to see it. Because all the potential that was present in the child has come to full maturity in an unpredictable, surprising, but perfectly fulfilled maturity. And Christ is the first fruits, the foretaste, of the final perfection that awaits us in Heaven. 

What exactly is the difference that happened to Jesus when He rose from the dead? We don’t know. And we don’t know exactly what will happen to us. As St. John tells us in his Letter, “we are children of God – what we shall become has not yet been revealed. All we know is that when it is revealed we shall be like him…” (I John 3:2)

But we know that our souls and our bodies will be transformed and transfigured, and we will be made glorious, like the risen, glorified Jesus. 

Four

The Glorified State

Before His resurrection, Jesus had been hideously brutalized, mutilated, and disfigured. His body had been twisted and torn and beaten and bloodied. That’s not what He looked like when He rose again. And our bodies, too, they’re weak and scarred and sometimes show the signs of sickness or disease or injury. But worse, our bodies, good as they are, are often the sources of temptation and fatigue and insecurity and vanity that weigh down the soul.

Imagine if your body was perfectly submissive to a clear mind and a competent will. If powerful feelings coursed through it, but feelings that followed reason instead of distracting it? Imagine perfect self-possession in your movements, in your looks, in the expressions of your face, and in the tone of your voice. Imagine being finally the master of yourself, finally! Imagine how differently you’d come across to others. It might take them a while to recognize you!

That will be our appearance in the next life. Vigorous, beautiful, strong, graceful, immortal, and above all, expressive of the inner peace that we will have forever. That’s something to look forward to.

Five

The Promise of Glory

Jesus always had the fullness of perfection within Him, but He hid that perfection behind a veil before His resurrection. Lifted only a little at the Transfiguration when he gives us a glimpse of His divinity. Then after His resurrection, He was hard to recognize. We are not yet perfect. We are children, and we have all the blemishes of childhood. We’re awkward, insecure, needy, intemperate, braggy, cowardly, and imprudent. As St. John says, “we are children… what we will be has not yet been revealed.”

We are children, and we are childish. But buried under those childish vices is the promise of adulthood, full stature in Christ, the pledge of immortality as the full men and women God has made us to be. The people in our lives now, people with all kinds of childish vices, we have to remember that in Heaven, they’ll be adults, spiritually and morally mature and beautiful. And it will take us a while to recognize them, because they’ll be so different, so much more mature, so much more self-possessed and happy. 

But then we’ll see that smile, or that personal touch we knew on earth. And we’ll say, “Oh my goodness, it’s you!” And they’ll say the same thing to us. And it will be the best recognition of all. But knowing this needs to affect the way we treat them today. 

So, what is our practical resolution? Every person you deal with today, God-willing, will be glorified in Heaven, so treat them with that dignity and awe today. Treating others with that dignity just might cause us to realize our own dignity, and it might cause them to realize theirs, then we’ll all act better today.

With every person you meet today, say to yourself, “They will be glorious in Heaven.”

Suggested Resolutions:

Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you.

• In each interaction with others today, try to treat them with the respect owed to someone glorified in Heaven because one day…they might be.

• It took a long time for the Disciples to recognize Christ when he was standing before them, take a moment to look back on your day each night and recognize the influence of Christ in everything.

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