Patristic Wisdom for Easter

But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” She, supposing Him to be the gardener, 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, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her. (John 20:11–18)

The angels asked Mary, saying: “Woman, why are you weeping?” And she said to them: “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have put him.” The sacred message which stirs up tears of love in us provides consolation for these tears when it promises us the sight of our Redeemer. But we should note that, in the historical sense, the woman did not say, “They have taken away the body of my Lord”, but, “They have taken away my Lord.” … The Lord’s body alone had lain in the sepulcher; Mary was not seeking the body, but the Lord who had been taken away, indicating the part by the whole.

When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, and she did not know that it was Jesus. Mary, who was still in doubt about the Lord’s resurrection, turned round to see Jesus. By this doubt she had turned her back to the face of the Lord, whom she did not believe had risen. Because she loved, and doubted, she saw and did not recognize him. Her love revealed him to her, and her doubt prevented her from knowing him. He said to her: “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek? He asked the reason for her sorrow to increase her desire, so that when he asked whom she was seeking she might feel a more vehement love for him.

She thought that it was the gardener, and said to him: “Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him away.” Perhaps this woman was not as mistaken as she appeared to be when she believed that Jesus was a gardener. Was he not spiritually a gardener for her, when he planted the fruitful seeds of virtue in her heart by the force of his love? But why did she say to the one she saw and believed to be the gardener, when she had not yet told him whom she was seeking, “Sir, if you have taken him away”? She had not yet said who it was who made her weep from desire, or mentioned him of whom she spoke. But the force of love customarily brings it about that a heart believes everyone else is aware of the one of whom it is always thinking. It is understandable that the woman did not say whom she was seeking, and yet said, “If you have taken him away.” She did not believe that the one for whom she herself so constantly wept in her desire was unknown to the other.

Gregory the Great, Forty Gospel Homilies 25