Mary Magdalen and the other disciples had experienced the death and burial of Jesus as a tragic moment in their lives. All their hopes and plans had been crushed in a most cruel way from one day to the next. One day they entered the city with Jesus as a new king coming into the capital. Then five days later Jesus is executed as a criminal. The disciples interpreted their experience based on death which produced in them sadness, fear, some division, and despair. Death was all that they knew and all that they expected. The disciples were so filled with fear that they did not want to go outside. But Mary had enough courage to get up early and go to the tomb in the cemetery.
We see her in today’s Gospel all alone – no other disciple went with her. In the cemetery Mary finds the stone rolled back and the tomb empty. Based on her experiences up to that point in her life, she can only image that someone had stolen Jesus’ body. For her, this was one more crushing blow on top of Jesus’ death. The only thing she can do is sit down and cry even more.
When the angels and the risen Jesus appear, they find her there crying. At first, she does not recognize the angles or even the risen Christ. She thinks they are the gardeners or even the grave robbers. Imagine that – she was surrounded by angels and the risen Christ, and she could only talk about grave robbers. This is because she was trying to understand her life based on death, sadness, and despair. All those tears of sadness were blurring her vision. All those feelings and thoughts of death blocked her perception of the now present risen Christ.
Then Jesus calls her by name, and she recognizes him. Jesus is still alive. Alive and conquering death. She gives him a big hug and won’t let him go. She probably wanted to hold on forever.
But Jesus sends her back to the disciples to announce and share her experience of the risen Christ. Mary Magdalena becomes the first evangelizer, the first to announce his resurrection.
This first recounting of the resurrection shows us two important things. First, to experience the resurrection, we must abandon our old way of life, our old way of interpreting our life, our blurred vision, feelings, and thoughts that are rooted in death, despair, and sadness. Death has no dominion over a Christian. Second, a true Christian who is alive again in the risen Christ, is given the task to proclaim the joy of that new life. Christians are always sent to proclaim and the resurrection.
But go and find the brothers, and tell them:
I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.