I respond: As Augustine says in the book On the Harmony of the Evangelists, Mary came twice: first, before she called the disciples, and afterward she returned again; and the first time she came while it was still dark; afterward, when the sun was shining.
14. Question IV. Likewise it is asked concerning what he says: She saw the stone rolled away, etc.
Would it not have been of greater power to go out with it closed? It seems so.
And it must be said that the Lord rose while the tomb was closed, and it was opened afterwards by the Angel. Chrysostom: "Jesus indeed rose while the stone and the seals remained in place. But because it was necessary for others to be assured, the tomb is opened after the resurrection, and thus what had happened is believed."
15. Question V. It is further asked: why is it that these alone ran, and not the others?
It must be said that either because it was reported to these alone; or, as Gregory says, "those ran before the rest who loved before the rest."
16. Question VI. Further, 1: since Luke says in the twenty-fourth chapter that Peter went to the tomb, speaking only of Peter, what does it mean that John here says two ran?
2. Further, what necessity was there for John here to make mention of himself?
It seems that he would have done better by keeping silent.
Augustine responds in the third book of On the Harmony of the Evangelists that Luke mentioned Peter alone because Mary Magdalene first announced it to him; and yet he himself mentions both; whence Cleophas said: Some of our own went to the tomb, etc.
To the other point that is asked: why does he make mention of himself? There is a twofold reason: the literal reason, namely, because he wished to place Peter before himself, so as to praise Peter and humble himself: because, although he himself arrived first, he entered after.
The allegorical reason is that by John the Jewish people is signified, and by Peter the elder the Gentile people is designated. John ran first but did not enter: because the Jew first received the Law but did not believe; the Gentile, however, arriving later, believed.
Second, concerning the manifestation of the resurrection.
17. The disciples therefore went away to their own homes, etc. Above he treated of the solicitude; here he treats of the manifestation: and because the manifestation was made to both sexes, therefore this part is divided into two. In the first, the manifestation made to the woman is treated; in the second, the manifestation made to the disciples, at the passage: When therefore it was evening, etc.
The manifestation made to the woman is therefore described in this order. First, the desolation of Mary is intimated; second, to the desolate one consolation is offered, at the passage: While therefore she was weeping, etc.; third, to her who refused to be consoled, the manifestation of Christ is offered, at the passage: When she had said this, she turned around, etc.; fourth, concerning the manifestation to be made public, a command is given to her, at the passage: Jesus says to her: Do not touch me; fifth, the report of the manifestation or appearance, at the passage: Mary Magdalene came.
18. (Verse 10). The intense desolation of Mary is therefore intimated, which in its restlessness did not allow her to depart from the sepulcher, even when the other disciples were departing; therefore he says: The disciples therefore went away to their own homes, "that is, where they had been dwelling" before they had come to the tomb, so that they might receive some consolation.
19. (Vers. 11.). But Mary stood at the tomb outside, "that is, before that place of the rock-hewn sepulchre," and she remained perseveringly: therefore she found: Luke eleven: "But if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, even though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many loaves as he needs"; Colossians four: "Continue steadfastly in prayer, watching in it," etc. Weeping: Augustine: "The eyes which had sought the Lord and had not found him were now given over to tears, and the woman grieved more that the Lord had been taken away from the tomb than that he had been slain upon the wood."
It should be noted that Mary wept from compunction, Luke seven; she wept from compassion, above, chapter eleven: "Jesus, when he saw her weeping"; she wept from devotion, as here, concerning which the Psalm says: "My tears have been my bread day and night, while it is said to me daily: Where is your God?"
While therefore she wept. Here consolation is offered to the desolate one, both in vision and in speech, but she is consoled by neither. In vision she is consoled by the sight of the Angels
whence he says: While therefore she wept, as one desolate, she stooped down and looked into the tomb, so that she might at least receive some consolation from the sight of the place: but she received a greater one. She stooped down, through humility: Job twenty-two: "He who has been humbled shall be in glory, and he who has lowered his eyes, he himself shall be saved." Whence:
20. (Vers. 12.). And she saw two Angels in white, sitting. Therefore they sit in white, because they had come to announce the splendor of our solemnity, namely the resurrection. One at the head and another at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been laid. Gregory explains why they were positioned thus. "He, he says, was to be announced through his passion, who is God before the ages and man at the end of the ages: as it were, the Angel sits at the head, when through the Apostle John it is preached that In the beginning was the Word, etc.; and as it were at the feet, when it is said: The Word was made flesh ." And thus consolation was made for her from the vision: Luke, the last chapter: "Certain women from among us amazed us, who before dawn were at the tomb, and not finding his body, came saying that they had also seen a vision of Angels, who say that he is alive."
21. (Vers. 13.). Not only does the Lord console her by sight, but also by the speech of the Angels: whence he says: They say to her: Woman, why do you weep ? as if to say: do not weep. For it was no longer a time for weeping, but for joy, since the Lord was rising. But she refused to be consoled, recalling the cause of her grief: Because they have taken away my Lord, that is, his body, is said by synecdoche: and I do not know where they have laid him. Augustine: "This was the greater cause of grief, because she did not know where to go to console her grief." Whence she could say that verse of the Psalm: "My soul refused to be consoled" etc.; Lamentations 1: "Therefore my eye weeps and sheds tears, because my consoler has departed from me, he who converts my soul."
22. (Vers. 14.). When she had said these things. Here, to her who is unwilling to be consoled, the manifestation of Christ occurs: and first he manifests himself to the senses of the flesh, then of the mind: to the senses of the body, namely to sight through appearance and to hearing through conversation. - She first beholds Jesus, whence he says: When she had said these things, by which she was showing that she did not wish to be consoled; she turned around and saw Jesus standing. She turned because love did not allow her to stand still, but rather she looked now here, now there. Or, as Chrysostom says, "Christ, appearing silently behind her, struck the Angels with awe, and they by their movement and gesture showed that they had seen something great: and this turned the woman around." And she saw Jesus, with the eyes of the body, not of the heart: whence: And she did not know that it was Jesus .
23. (Vers. 15.). Thus he manifested himself through appearance; he also manifests himself through conversation: whence: Jesus says to her: Woman, why do you weep? as if to say: do not weep. Whom do you seek? She was seeking him whom the bride also sought in Song of Songs 3: "On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves"; as if to say: you ought not to seek him among the dead, because "rising from the dead, he dies no more; death shall no longer have dominion over him," Romans 6. But not yet does she recognize him through conversation: whence he says: She, supposing that he was the gardener, because she had come into the garden so early in the morning: says to him: Lord, if you have carried him away, that is, Jesus. She had made no mention of Jesus to him with whom she was speaking, and only said him; because, as Gregory says, "the force of love is accustomed to do this in the soul: that it believes no one else is ignorant of him whom it always thinks about." Tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. It was not enough for her to see him, unless she should take him away, according to that verse of Song of Songs 3: "I held him and would not let him go, until I brought him into the house of my mother and into the chamber of her who bore me": therefore she wished to take him away.
24. (Verse 16). Jesus says to her. He manifested himself to the exterior sense; here he manifests himself to the interior sense by calling her by name: whence: Jesus says to her: Mary. Gregory: "After he called her by the common designation of her sex and was not recognized, he calls her by name, so that she might recognize him by whom she is recognized." She, having turned, namely through the captivation of the intellect: Apocalypse 1: "I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me"; says to him: Rabboni, which is interpreted master. Having turned, not in body, because she had already turned in body before, but in heart: whence Augustine: "Then," he says, "turned in body, she supposed what was not; now turned in heart, she recognized what was." Moreover, recognizing him, she calls him master, because she was accustomed to call him thus: above in the eleventh chapter, Martha said to Mary: "The Master is here and calls for you."