Mary Magdalene had only one thing in mind – to find the body of Jesus, which she thought had been stolen. So she disregards the question Jesus asks and gets right to the matter at hand: Are you the one who moved Jesus’ body…….. and will you help get it back?
She doesn’t realize that she is saying this to the Risen Lord himself.
How can someone who believes in Jesus, meet Jesus and not know it’s Jesus?
Well, he wasn’t what she had expected. His risen body was transformed.
I wonder if there are times when the Lord is present to me in a special way and I miss it because it’s not what I expected.
Like right now?
Some of the sites mentioned in the Gospels are difficult to locate today. For one thing, their names changed over time. Also there was not, in the early centuries, the same interest in pilgrimages that later developed.
Cana is an example of this – two different villages claim to be the site where Jesus changed the water into wine.
Emmaus is another example. There is no known village that was called Emmaus at the time of Christ, and still is called that today. Luke indicates that the village was “seven miles from Jerusalem” – but unfortunately he doesn’t say in which direction.
There are three villages today that claim to be the site.
It is a custom in some places to take an “Emmaus Walk” in the days following Easter.
The idea is to go out for a walk and greet and speak with anyone along the way, recognizing that it was by such a greeting that the two disciples on the road to Emmaus met the Risen Christ.