Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene. Joh 20,11-18

Although the Slovak folk saying “After the war, every general is a general” is not very positive—it expresses criticism of those who did not put their hand to the work but know how to comment and criticize the actors—it nevertheless offers a reflection on the importance of looking back on a matter. After the war, we are best able to evaluate things, events, and decisions. Time thus plays in a person’s favor. It allows him to see things with perspective. A reasonable person uses this to penetrate events below the surface and understand them. Christ’s someone, Mary Magdalene, cries over the loss of her Master. The last “nail in the coffin” of pain is the loss of his body. The torture, crucifixion, and burial were not enough… someone also had to steal his body. She had nothing left to remind her of her Master. But Christ approaches her discreetly. Despite her sincere pain over the loss, she cannot recognize in the glorified Lord the one she is looking for. Who has changed? Christ or Mary’s view? Her gaze is still a gaze at the cross on which Christ dies; it is a gaze at the dead Christ, who is being taken down from the cross; it is a gaze into the tomb in which Christ’s dead body is being enclosed. Such a gaze cannot see the Risen Christ. Only Christ’s address to Mary by name opens her eyes to see the present. Jesus lives. His presence helps her to leave the world of memories and look at the present. Then follows, in her life as in the life of every disciple, a gaze into the past. The disciple makes the many moments spent with the Master present, but with a new gaze. Therefore, he can exclaim, “Rabboni!” and embrace the Master’s feet with joy and humility. We are invited to a life full of adventure that we did not dream of, did not plan, did not prepare for. It is a life that He has prepared for us. By addressing us from His side, we can look at this world with new eyes. A person redeemed by God and addressed by God is thus able to re-examine his life and then step into the new one that the Redeemer has prepared for him. After the war that the Master has fought for him, the disciple becomes his general