Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’   
John 20: 15-16  

It is one of the most important moments in our life, when our parents give us a name, something that travels with us through every moment of our days. Nothing signifies who we are more. In addressing Mary by name, the risen Jesus bestows anew her God-given identity that subsumes all her human experience, good and bad, laying the groundwork for her to recreate her life anew.  

Human dignity, the unique God-given value of an individual, is at the heart of what we do at JRS. The word humanitarian never fully captures our work. We always seek to restore the names, the identities of displaced people, enabling them to live with new hope – integrating past painful experience but not letting it have the last word.   

As our world rapidly changes and many of the old certainties begin fall away, we know that our God creates in these moments new and fresh horizons. Just as Mary Magdelene saw new life through her grief at Jesus’ tomb, so we look to signs of new life and hope. 

In these difficult days, when many human forces are working to anonymise people under the labels “refugee”, “immigrant,” or “aid recipient”, we must remember that each one of them has a name and a story. 

May the risen Christ open our hearts and minds this Easter as we go forward to meet the new challenges this world brings us.