Commentary on the Gospel of
Re-Creation
Everything in today’s gospel narrative points to the new Garden of Eden where a new creation, re-creation, unfolds. We are in a new garden of Eden, hinted at by the references to the gardener. Garden is where new life is born and tended to. If the devil initiated the breakup then, here the angels initiate the reconnection with the “woman”, Mary. She mistakes Jesus for the gardener; but he indeed is the new gardener, the new Adam. The call and response—"Mary”- “Rabboni”—re-establish a broken relationship in affirmative belonging and mutual recognition. The prohibition to touch, while mimicking Eve’s mischievous addition to God’s prohibition, corrects the temptation to grab divinity by force instead of receiving it in gratitude. The fatal expulsion then is replaced now with a total affirmation of sharing Jesus’ own God and Father as our own God and Father. If Eve brought disastrous news to Adam, Mary now brings the good news of redemption to the disciples.
