Did Jesus' disciples await the Resurrection? Yes, of course they did. All their fellow believers awaited it, so why would they be an exception? And yet the resurrection of their Teacher was an enormous surprise for them. Perhaps an expected one, and yet still a surprise...
Did Jesus' disciples await the Resurrection? Yes, of course they did. All their fellow believers awaited it, so why would they be an exception? And yet the resurrection of their Teacher was an enormous surprise for them. Perhaps an expected one, and yet still a surprise. After all, the Resurrection was not supposed to happen like this, almost routinely. They simply came to the tomb, and the body was not there. The tomb was empty. The Resurrection is not like that; it is different. Everyone knows it is different. It will be majestic, solemn, unrepeatable... and here there is simply an empty tomb. He simply rose. He got up, came out of the tomb, and left. No, that does not happen. It cannot be. Surely someone must have stolen the body after all. The gardener, perhaps he knows... That is how the Encounter happens. And recognition.
But not at once. At first Mary is sure that the gardener is standing before her. It cannot be otherwise; there is nothing else to expect. And then everything depends only on openness. Whether one recognizes Him or not depends on how open a person is. Not simply open to Him, but open in general. How important, or unimportant, are one's expectations, opinions, stereotypes... how convinced one is that there is something that cannot be simply because it can never be. The stronger such certainty is, the fewer chances there are for recognition. Mary had no such certainty.
Perhaps because she did not think all that often about what could happen in her life and what could not happen in principle. Perhaps the feminine mind is generally less categorical than the masculine one. At least when it comes to postulates, schemes, and models. Fewer models mean fewer tests for conformity. And then He can be recognized: by a familiar word heard from Him before, by His voice, by His image... by an image greatly changed, yet still familiar. Familiar because an image is not only outward appearance.
An image is also everything that forms that appearance: its inner form, and not only its outer one. Outwardly, transformed humanity differs from untransformed humanity as heaven differs from earth. But inwardly it is akin to it, akin because from the very beginning God created our human nature so that it could be transformed. So that it could become completely new and at the same time remain itself. And therefore remain recognizable. At least for those for whom form is not only outward. As it was for Mary, who recognized her risen Teacher.
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20:11 But Mary stood - With more constancy. Mar 16:9.
20:16 Jesus saith to her, Mary - With his usual voice and accent.
20:17 Touch me not - Or rather, Do not cling to me (for she held him by the feet,) Mat 28:9. Detain me not now. You will have other opportunities of conversing with me. For I am not ascended to my Father - I have not yet left the world. But go immediately to my brethren - Thus does he intimate in the strongest manner the forgiveness of their fault, even without ever mentioning it. These exquisite touches, which every where abound in the evangelical writings, show how perfectly Christ knew our frame.I ascend - He anticipates it in his thoughts, and so speaks of it as a thing already present. To my Father and your Father, to my God and your God - This uncommon expression shows that the only - begotten Son has all kind of fellowship with God. And a fellowship with God the Father, some way resembling his own, he bestows upon his brethren. Yet he does not say, Our God: for no creature can be raised to an equality with him: but my God and your God: intimating that the Father is his in a singular and incommunicable manner; and ours through him, in such a kind as a creature is capable of.