Paschal Meditation: Mary and Thomas

"Do not hold on to me.” | “Reach out your hand and put it in my side." — John 20:17, 27

In the house, the risen Jesus came and stood among the disciples, spoke a word of peace, and told Thomas, “Reach out your hand and put it in my side” (Jn 20:27).  In the garden, Mary Magdalene saw the risen Jesus when she turned around, away from the tomb.  He spoke her name, drying her tears with his voice, and told her, “Do not hold on to me” (20:17).  Why does Jesus say, in effect, to Thomas, “Touch me,” but to Mary, “Touch me not”?

Noli me tangere, "The Queen Mary Psalter" (early 14th c.)

To Mary, Jesus explains, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.”  He tells her not to cling to him, because he must be “taken away” (cf. 20:2, 13, 15) again.  (He had already been taken from her twice: once at his death, and again by being taken away from his tomb.)  She, who was standing near his cross and came weeping to his tomb, must not hold on to her Master, because he is going away.  He is going away, but she will hold on to him in faith.*  He is going away to prepare a place for her, and will come again and take her to himself, that where he is, there she may be also (14:2–3). 

But not her alone.  She will not take away for herself (20:15) “the faithful martyr” (Rev. 1:4), but she will be taken by him with all his own.  And not yet, not yet, because now Jesus sends her to bear witness to him (20:17).

Like her Lord, she is a faithful witness, telling the disciples what he told her (20:18). But they do not believe, until the Lord reveals himself to them (v. 20).  Likewise, Thomas, who still has not seen the risen Lord for himself, refuses to believe their testimony until he sees what they have seen—and going further—can even put his finger in the mark of the nails and his hand in the pierced side (v. 25).  (Is this a characteristic hyperbole from the disciple who brashly declared to the others, “Let us also go [with Jesus to Jerusalem], that we may die with him” (11:16), but was not with Jesus at his death?)

Doubting Thomas, Breviary, France (early 14th c.)

Jesus reveals himself to Thomas in the same way as to the other disciples: speaking peace (20:19, 26) and showing his wounds (vv. 20, 27).  The risen Lord even commands Thomas to do what he (Thomas) had demanded:  “Put your finger here...put [your hand] in my side” (v. 27).  And adds, “Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”  Does the Lord, in humbly granting what Thomas asks, lead Thomas to the humility of faith?  For we do not read that Thomas put his hand in the Lord’s side; rather, amazed, he responds with a cry of faith, “My Lord and my God!” (v. 28)  Thomas’ answer is like that of Job after the Lord answered his demands out of the whirlwind (Job 40:60), and Job responded, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but not my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (42:5–6).

“Touch me,” Jesus tells Thomas; “Touch me not,” he tells Mary.  But he speaks one word to both:  "You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit (Jn. 15:16).  Do what I command you (15:14).  Love one another as I have loved you (15:12).  Follow me (21:22)!"

* Cf. Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John, 121.3.

Notes on Mary Magdalene

"Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’  She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher)."

John 20:16

"Noli me tangere," Exultet Roll, Abbey of Montecasino

I

"Then the disciples returned to their homes.  But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb" (John 20:10–11):  Whether or not she was the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears (Lk. 7:38), it is certainly true that she, "from whom seven demons had gone out" (8:2), loved much (7:47).  Mary Magdalene loved much; she was one of the few who followed Jesus to the end, and was standing near his cross when he died (Jn. 19:25).  She came early on the morning to his tomb because her grief was boundless at the loss of the one whom she loved much.

The ambiguous sign of the empty tomb could not console her.  It signified only a double loss, for no she no longer knew where the body of the one whom she had loved was laid (Jn. 20:2).

She loved much, and so she stood weeping because it was beyond hope that she would see the one she loved again.  So when she saw him, she did not recognize him, thinking only of how she could find the one who had been twice taken from her.

II

Ludwig Wittgenstein:  “Perhaps we can say: Only love can believe the Resurrection.  Or:  It is love that believes in the Resurrection.  We might say: Redeeming love believes even in the Resurrection; holds fast even to the Resurrection.  What combats doubt is, as it were, redemption.  Holding fast to this must be holding fast to that belief.  So what that means is: first you must be redeemed and hold on to your redemption (keep hold of your redemption)—then you will see that you are holding fast to this belief.  So this can come about only if you no longer rest your weight on the earth but suspend yourself from heaven.  Then everything will be different and it will be ‘no wonder’ if you can do things that you cannot do now"  (Culture and Value, 32).

III

Only when she is called by her name does she recognize the risen Jesus.  She knew his voice (Jn. 10:27), the voice of the one she followed with such great love, the voice of her Teacher (20:16).  She hears the voice of love, which says, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine" (Isa. 43:1)—and she believes in the Resurrection.