NOTES for Joh 20:11-18

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.