11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
*St. John 20.11-18 (NRSV)
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The real conversionary moment for Mary of Magdala, on that first Easter, was upon hearing her name called - "Mary." She had been addressed by angel presences with the nonintimate "Woman." The risen Christ had addressed her, likewise. Now, something shifted. Christ awakened her to who he is with "Mary," an intimate address. This evoked from her recognition. She, like us, did not see what was before her, for she saw through the past, and was not receptive to a new happening, Grace welcoming her into a new beginning. So much had changed in the last days, but the change was continuous with the prior of Christ and her togetherness - that communion had prepared her for this moment of surprise.
We, too, long for Love, for we long to be intimately addressed, intimately known. And our name represents, spiritually, a Mystery. Our name is a surface sign of unnameable depths. The name speaks of a particular prior knowing, a knowing unfolding in the conversions along the Way, as Grace unveils Grace to us in ever-more fuller, purer, subtle ways. We are so much more than a name, but for Life to speak our name is a way Life reverences us, affirming that we are an expression of Itself. We discover we are essentially gift, not merely a gift. Our life is permeated, dancing, through and through with silent, effulgent Magnificence. Grace unfolds our depths in the depths of Love, for Christ is Love, and through the particularity, the traits, of our created beingness.
In knowing the One who speaks the name, we come to know ourselves as more than anyone ever told us we were, we are. We, therefore, cannot come into intimacy with this Grace except through the fact that we are a named expression of Life Itself. And in coming to hear our name - representative of all we are as created being -, again and again, we are drawn ever-more wholly into the wholeness Christ is, and our embodied isness finds its home in Love that is.
Through our name - our life-, we are drawn gracefully, lovingly into the Nameless. How many conversions are there into this Beauty? Possibly, there is no end to the moments of being summoned more closely - possibly.
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The command to love creates a new world in Christ. To obey that command is not merely to carry out a routine duty; it is to enter into life and continue in life. To love is not merely righteousness, it is transformation from brightness to brightness...."
*Thomas Merton. Disputed Questions.
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