From today’s Scripture: “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?’ She thought it was the gardener and said to him, ‘Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni,’ which means Teacher.”—Jn 20:15-16

In John’s Gospel, Mary doesn’t recognize Jesus by sight, logic, or even hope. She recognizes him when he speaks her name: “Mary.” Not a sermon, not an explanation — just her name, spoken the way only Jesus could speak it. Tenderly. Personally.

Anyone who has loved deeply knows this instinctively. You could be in another room, half-asleep, years removed from someone — and if that voice said your name in that way, you would know before your mind caught up. Love trains us to recognize presence beyond appearances.

There’s also something profoundly human (and divine) here: resurrection doesn’t erase relationship; it fulfills it. Many theologians and preachers have lingered on this moment because it says something tender about God too: we are called by name. And Mary’s response isn’t a creed. It’s “Rabbouni.” Teacher. Beloved. The word of someone who has just been found.

Let us pray: Jesus, my Lord and my beloved. Open my heart that I might more clearly hear you calling me by name.

Today’s author is Father Dan Dorsey, president of Glenmary Home Missioners.

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