But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and 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. They 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."
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus 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." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus 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.'"
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Mary Magdalene, in the garden of Resurrection, is awakened to the new Reality of Christ. She calls him "Sir," thinking he is the gardener. Later, she calls him "Teacher."
The transitional point for Mary is Jesus speaking her name. First, he says, "Woman." Later, he addresses her by "Mary." "Mary" awakens her. "Woman" is general. "Mary" is intimate.
Writes Thomas Keating, in The Mystery of Christ -
Jesus manifests his knowledge of everything in her life and his total acceptance of all that she is. … The simple utterance of one word, "Mary!" brought to focus all her longings. … Thus, the same relationship with the Father that Christ enjoys is rising in Mary Magdalene - and in each of us as we assimilate the grace of Easter.
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Here, Easter assumes for Mary present tense. It became for the Christians, too, present tense weekly. The early Church selected Sunday as its weekly day of worship. Each Sunday is an Easter celebration. How appropriate this choice to worship together on the Day of the Sun.
As the Sun alights upon us, Christ, the Light, shines upon us, too. Sunday is a reminder every day is Sun Day.
For the Sun to rise within us, transforming us, awakening us Light to Light, we hear our name spoken. While we are all one, we each are directly addressed and summoned to say "Yes." The call is intimate.
While the Light may speak in many ways, it is one Light. It always leads to newness. We, like Mary, are never again the same. And in our newness, everything somehow participates in that freshness of Life. Hence, while we are directly spoken to, we respond for everyone, for all beings.
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Is not a true, spiritual being in the Light one who is being infused with the grace of Easter? Does this not defy religious and political sects - all sects? Does it not mean more than a religious holiday celebrated once yearly? Does not the "Mary!" - seeing this Mary was known in the Scriptures as a woman possessed by a number of dark spirits - connote how the Sun of Grace includes those many consider "unchosen" or "unfit"? Does this not embrace what we feel unworthy within ourselves or unfit to be known and loved?
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and title and place of photograph.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
