John 20:16Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore at last Christ reveals to her the lofty mystery, not by His appearance, but by His voice.

As in those cases when He was among the Jews, sometimes they recognized Him and sometimes they did not. So also, when He spoke, they recognized Him only when He wished.

Thus, when He said to the Jews, "Whom are you seeking?" they recognized Him neither by appearance nor by voice as long as He willed it so.

The same thing happened here. Christ now pronounced only Mary's name, reproaching and rebuking her because she thought such things about Him while He was alive.

But how does she answer, "turning," when Christ was speaking with her? It seems to me that after saying, "Where have you laid Him?" she turned to the angels.

The woman's intention is full of love, but she cannot imagine anything lofty. Since she could not of herself think anything lofty, the Lord makes Himself known to her by His voice.

He pronounced only her name and thereby implanted knowledge in her. In the same way, He sometimes allowed the Jews to recognize Him, and at other times was present among them, yet they did not recognize Him.

So also in His words, whenever He wished, He allowed Himself to be recognized. In the same way now, when He wished, He allowed Mary to recognize Him by His voice.

Without doubt, He had spoken aloud to her before: "Woman, why are you weeping?" But Mary did not recognize Him, because this was not the will of Jesus.

When He willed it, she recognized Him by His voice.

He now calls the woman’s mind to clearer knowledge, offering Himself to her unhindered contemplation, since she loves Him most intensely. He seems already to rebuke her excessive slowness in understanding that He is the Christ. He indicates something of this by calling her by name. She at once understands. By the very sight she casts away her first suspicions and addresses Him with the customary honorable cry, “Rabboni,” that is, “Teacher.” With her heart filled with the highest joy, she quickly approaches to touch the Holy Body and receive a blessing from Him.

Let no one think ill of the woman who called the Lord a gardener and Jesus a teacher. The first was a sign of respect toward a man whose favor she sought.

The second was a sign of due reverence toward the Teacher from whom she had learned to distinguish the divine and the human.

She called "sir" the one whose servant she was not, so that through him she might come to the Lord to whom she belonged.

Thus "lord" is used in different senses: "They have taken away my Lord" (Jn 20:13), and "Sir, if you have carried Him away."

Let no one accuse the woman because she called the gardener dominus, and Jesus Teacher. For there she was asking, but here she was already answering.

After these words He no longer addresses her as “woman,” but as “Mary.” Instead of a common name, He gives the proper name of a follower of Christ. He sends her to the disciples, if not as a practiced teacher of faith, still as a herald of good tidings.

Now, changing His voice and appearance to one more familiar, Jesus Christ was pleased that Mary should recognize Him. As soon as she recognized Him, she cried out with great joy, “Teacher!” But how could Mary speak directly to the Lord when she had turned away? After saying what she had said earlier, Mary turned back to the Angels to see whether they were still there, or to ask who had so frightened them. Then, when Jesus Christ called her, she immediately turned to Him.

"Jesus says to her: Mary!" After He had called her by the general name of her sex and was not recognized, He calls her by name.

He clearly speaks as though saying: "Recognize Him who knows you." To the perfect man it is said: "I know you by name" (Ex 33:12).

For man is the common name of us all, but Moses is the proper name. To him it is rightly said that he is known by name.

The Lord clearly speaks as though saying: "I know you not generally, as the others, but particularly."

Therefore, because Mary is called by name, she in turn recognizes the Author, and immediately calls Him "Rabboni," that is, "Teacher."

For He was both the One she sought outwardly and the One who inwardly taught her to seek.

The Searcher of hearts and the One who dwells within man knew that Mary would recognize His voice, as a bleating sheep knows the shepherd. He called, “Mary.” She at once recognized Him and said, “This is my good Shepherd calling me, that at last He may number me with the ninety-nine lambs. For behind the One who calls me I see legions of saints and ranks of righteous ones. Therefore I also say, ‘Who is the One calling me?’ For I know exactly who calls me. It is He Himself, as I have already said, my Lord, who grants resurrection to the fallen.”

When He called and named her, saying, “Mary,” then she recognized Him and answered. Changing her thought, she said, “Rabboni, which means Teacher.” Yet even then, although she saw Him alive, it did not occur to her to think of Him somehow as God. She treats Him simply as a Man of God and a Teacher of divine things.

“Mary!” Christ said to her in a voice familiar to her. Then she recognized Him, cried out, “Rabboni!” and threw herself at His feet. By rushing toward Him she thereby showed her desire to touch Him and to know, not only by sight but also by touch, that this was not the spirit of her Teacher, but He Himself.

“Mary!” As the Lord was pleased to reveal Himself to the travelers to Emmaus in the breaking of bread (Lk 24:31, 35), so He revealed Himself to Magdalene by calling her by name. Perhaps her name was spoken with an intonation long and well known to her. In it she at once recognized the voice of her Teacher and Lord. “Having turned”: this shows that after speaking to the supposed gardener she had again turned her eyes toward the tomb. “Rabboni” (cf. Mk 10:51) is the same as “rabbi,” in a particular form of speech from rabban, meaning teacher. Compare the note on Mt 23:6-7.