Tuesday in the Octave of Easter, April 11, 2023

John 20, 11–18

Mary Magdalene 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 went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then reported what he had told her.

We should note the appearance of Mary Magdalen in the Gospel of St. John.  Until he describes her coming to the tomb very early in the morning on the first day of the week, John does not mention her.  When he does mention her, he gives her name as though it were already well-known to his readers.  We know from the Gospel of St. Mark that the Lord had previously delivered her from possession by seven demons, but otherwise we know nothing for certain of her life until now.  For John to have mentioned her as he does and then to tell us in some detail of how Jesus met her seems to indicate that she had a prominent place in the Church in Judea during Apostolic times.   

In the Gospel Reading for today’s Mass, Mary Magdalene, who had announced the news of the empty tomb to the Apostles, had followed them back to the tomb.  She may have returned only after Peter and John had gone from it because we are not told that she interacted with them again, and they do not witness the Lord appearing to her.  Not having looked into the tomb, she had not seen what they had seen and so far as she knew, the chief priests had violated the tomb and hauled the Lord’s Body away.  John emphasizes this when he says that, “Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping.”  We should note here that she wept while the Apostles did not.  They feared that they would also be seized by the chief priests, especially since the Lord was no longer there to protect them.  Peter and John, at least, show that they overcome their fear.  But Mary Magdalene had no fear to overcome, for since she had first met the Lord and he had freed her from the demons, she was overcome with love for him.  

“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.”  Finally, her desire to at least see where her Lord’s Body had been laid brought her to look inside the tomb.  That she had to bend over to see into it tells us that she stayed outside whereas Peter and John had gone in.  Because the Apostles had been able to see when they were inside and Mary expected to be able to see indicates that the opening of the tomb must have been oriented to the East so that the light of the rising sun could illuminate its interior to some extent.  This might have influenced the orientation of altars toward the east in later times.  “She saw two angels.”  St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew correlates the various encounters the women had with the angels that Sunday morning and says that there were two sets of angelic appearances: before and after they go to the Apostles.  Here, Mary Magdalene sees them after her return to the tomb alone.  Their placement inside the tomb and “sitting” where the dead Body of the Lord had been laid has the same significance as the angel who moves the stone covering the tomb and then sitting on it: death has been conquered.  That the sitting is a sign is clear because angels do not need to rest.

“Woman, why are you weeping?”  They ask although they know why she sorrows: they prepare her for meeting Jesus by indirectly reminding her of his promise to rise again.   “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?”  The Lord altered his form on a few occasions in his appearances after his Resurrection, or those who saw him were so convinced of his Death that they did not know him even though he showed himself plainly to them.  If Mary had not been filled with grief she might have remonstrated with anyone who asked this question in these circumstances what else should she be doing at a tomb?  The addition of the question, “Whom are you looking for?” seems to have alerted her to the possibility that this person might have been party to the moving of the Body.  From his proximity to the tomb, she assumed that he worked there — probably a number other tombs existed nearby.  “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.”  She could not have carried his Body any distance even if she could have lifted it, but her love made her bold,

“Mary!”  His singular pronunciation of her name with all his love for her caused her to know him.  It was as though he had opened the eyes of the blind.  The effect of his voice sounding her name had an immediate result.  One day, when we come to the end of our lives on earth, the Lord will similarly speak our names with great love.  “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.”  By this odd sounding command we know that she had held onto the Lord’s feet for some time and did not rise.  But there was work to be done before he ascended into heaven.  “But go to my brothers.”  He sends her back to the Apostles, who had not yet seen him in order to prepare them for his appearance to them.  Matthew also tells us that the Lord called his Apostles “brothers” after his rising, and the Lord does this to assure them of his forgiveness for their dereliction and denials.

“I have seen the Lord.”  Mary’s message to the Apostles is simple and direct, though doubtless she also told them the details of the meeting.  But they would have known this even if she come into the house where they were staying and she had not spoken a word.  Her eyes would have told them, even her silence would have told them.  You and I do not need to be great orators in order to bear witness to Jesus.  If we really love him, people will know, and through this they will come to know him.