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Gospel: John 20: 1-2, 11-18
On the first day of the week,
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don’t know where they put him.”
Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb
and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet
where the Body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
She said to them, “They have taken my Lord,
and I don’t know where they laid him.”
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?”
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
“Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew,
“Rabbouni,” which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her,
“Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
But go to my brothers and tell them,
‘I am going to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.'”
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,
“I have seen the Lord,”
and then reported what he told her.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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The experience of Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb reveals that Easter is meant to both console and stretch us.
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According to John’s Gospel, Mary is the first to arrive in the eerily dark and quiet cemetery that first Easter morning. Even before the sun crept over the hills, she was on the go.
Realizing that the stone had been rolled away, Mary fled in panic, rushing to tell Peter and John. They followed her back to the tomb, but for some reason, the men decided to leave.
Mary, crushed by the death of Jesus – and now his unexplainable absence – sits down and weeps.
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I suppose she peeked into that darkened tomb simply to remind herself that Jesus wasn’t there. Suddenly, angels appear to her, inquiring what her grief is all about.
Mary doesn’t recognize the divine figures because her eyes and face must’ve been inflamed from crying so many tears; not just that morning, but the night before, and the night before that.
Then Jesus himself approaches her, and the result is the same. She cannot “see.”
That’s where humanity’s first experience of Easter begins. In the blurriness; the confusion; the darkness. Mary, abandoned by Peter and John, grieves much like her Master did three days prior.
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I suppose the question we’re supposed to ask is, “Why?”
“Why” from a thousand different angles. Why death? Why must we suffer? Why does Easter begin in the dark? Why can Mary not recognize Jesus at first? Why can she not physically hold him, even if for a moment?
Answers to such questions reside somewhere within the shroud of mystery. But Mary’s experience of Easter reminds us of some very important lessons in faith.
There is no Easter without Good Friday; there is no hope without loss; divine consolation comes when we weep, but only after we search for the Lord.
“I have seen the Lord,” Mary proclaims. May her experience of Easter become our own. In the words of the Psalmist, “May your mourning be turned into dancing.”
For Christ is Risen! Alleluia!
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Image credits: (1) Hearing God’s Whisper, WordPress (2) Fritz von Uhde, Noli Mi Tangere (3) Christ is Risen, St. Anthony, Sacramento