“Mary stood outside near the tomb and wept” (John 20:11).
It is interesting how Easter always begins with a misunderstanding.
Everyone is convinced that the story and events surrounding Jesus are now over, but instead, that ending is only a new beginning.
Yet everyone has their eyes fixed on the end. It takes time for them to understand that there is more to that ending.
Mary Magdalene is standing near the empty tomb.
She cannot yet know that that empty tomb will remain forever as the most tangible sign of Jesus’ resurrection. For her, that empty tomb is just another chapter of pain in the great tragedy of those terrible days of passion.
Yet Mary Magdalene teaches us an immense lesson: she remains there in front of that emptiness.
She does not run away; she does not sugarcoat that terrible experience.
We often cannot bear emptiness, and in order not to feel it, we are willing to fill it with anything.
The most decisive experience of spiritual life is to dwell in the emptiness that so often appears in our hearts. To dwell in it with the stubbornness of love. To dwell in it like Mary Magdalene.
But the love and desire of this woman are not enough; something unexpected must happen.
This is where Jesus enters the scene: “Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?’” (John 20:14,15).
Jesus had already asked the same question once before. It was in Gethsemane, and when the guards arrived, he asked, “Who are you looking for?”
The experience of faith is the experience of allowing ourselves to be reached by this great question: who are you looking for?
We can seek faith only as a way to find ourselves. But true faith is when you realize that there is something more interesting than yourself, and that is God.
Mary Magdalene is not thinking about herself; she is thinking about Jesus, and that is precisely why Jesus can speak to her, revealing who he is.
No special effects are needed; all he has to do is say her name: “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’. She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabboni!’”.
