Christ appears to Mary Magdalene

Saint John - Chapter 20

Christ appears to Mary Magdalene. J-J Tissot

[14] Haec cum dixisset, conversa est retrorsum, et vidit Jesum stantem : et non sciebat quia Jesus est.
When she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing; and she knew not that it was Jesus.

[15] Dicit ei Jesus : Mulier, quid ploras? quem quaeris? Illa existimans quia hortulanus esset, dicit ei : Domine, si tu sustulisti eum, dicito mihi ubi posuisti eum, et ego eum tollam.
Jesus saith to her: Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, thinking it was the gardener, saith to him: Sir, if thou hast taken him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.

From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)

The question has often been asked: how was it that Mary Magdalene did not recognise Jesus when He appeared to her near the tomb, but took Him for the gardener?  And many different explanations have been given.  Some think that the Saviour did really appear, disguised as a gardener, and He is thus represented by most of the early painters.  Others, rejecting, as we think with reason, this improbable idea, attribute Mary's momentary mistake and the dialogue resulting from it to her agitation.  A more simple explanation will suggest itself to those who read the sacred text carefully.  The Evangelist does, in fact, say that after she heard the Saviour call her "Mary," "she turned herself back" to answer.  She had, therefore, in the first instance spoken without turning round, her eyes fixed obstinately on the Sepulchre, and it is, therefore, not surprising, taking into account her confusion and the difficulty of believing in a resurrection, that she did not at the first moment recognise the divine Master.

The way in which he refers to that Master is remarkable; she merely uses the pronoun "him", as if the whole world must be cognizant of her loss.  "Sir," she says, "if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." There is something grand in those last words!  Mary Magdalene does not consider her weakness, everything seems possible to her if she can but recover Him she loves.  She only demands one thing: "Tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." This boldness is sublime, and is one of the characteristic touches which give the Gospels their incomparable impress of truthfulness.  That of Saint John especially, as we have more than once remarked, it is almost always marked by exceptional powers of observation, combined with the charm of the most perfect simplistic.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam