Mary Magdalene “was stubborn, she hardly believed”, Pope Francis said off the cuff during his general audience catechesis today, recalling that “Mary Magdalene is described in the Gospels as a woman who is not easily surprised”. Indeed, after her first visit to the tomb, “she returns in disappointment to the place where the disciples used to hide; she tells them that the stone has been rolled away from the entrance, and her first hypothesis is the simplest she can formulate: Jesus’ body must have been taken away. So Mary’s first announcement is not that of the Resurrection, but of a theft that unknown people have committed while the whole Jerusalem was asleep”. The Gospels, however, report a second visit by Mary Magdalene to Jesus’ tomb. “This time her steps are slow, heavy”, Pope Francis said: “Mary suffers twice: first of all for Jesus’ death, and then for the unexplained disappearance of His body. And while she bends down, her eyes full of tears, God surprises her in the most unexpected way”. “John the evangelist underlines how persistent her blindness is”, the Pope stressed. “She does not notice the presence of the two angels questioning her, nor does she get the hint when she sees the man behind her, whom she thinks is the gardener. Instead, she only understands the most shocking event in human history when, finally, she is called by name: ‘Mary!’”.