Questions from Jesus : Why are you crying ? (10) - Proposed reading : John 20. 11-18

Friday March 25, 2022

Jesus said to her (to Mary of Magdala) : Woman, why are you crying ? John 20. 15

I will turn their mourning into joy, and I will comfort them ; I will give them joy after their sorrow. Jeremiah 31. 13

Questions from Jesus : Why are you crying ? (10) - Proposed reading : John 20. 11-18

Mary of Magdala stands near the tomb, as she had stood near the cross. She is alone, she cries. Overwhelmed with sadness, she did not react to the sight of the angels watching over where the body of Jesus had rested. This celestial presence has no impact on her. She responds to them as she would respond to ordinary people. She does not hear their question as a call to get out of her pain. Marie, deeply attached to her Lord, wants to know where her body has been put, but she is a prisoner of her mourning.

The risen Jesus approaches, but she doesn't know it's him. "Jesus said to her : Woman, why are you crying ? Who are you looking for ? She, thinking it was the gardener, said to her : Lord, if you took it away, tell me where you got it. put it, and I will take it. Jesus said to her : Mary ! She turned around and said to him in Hebrew : Rabbouni ! That is to say : Master !" Jesus asks him the same question as the angels : "Why are you crying ?" but he adds : "Who are you looking for ?" and calls him by his name.

Thus, Jesus reveals himself to those who love him and seek him with all their heart. Mary looked for him in vain among the dead. But Jesus makes him hear the voice of the Good Shepherd who knows his sheep and calls them by name. Instantly she recognizes the voice of the one who had healed her, whom she had followed, served, seen die crucified... Was her living Lord there, risen ? His faith experiences the extreme joy promised to the disciples : "Your sorrow will be turned into joy" (John 16:20).

Source (The Good Seed)