Jul 22 – Memorial for St. Mary Magdalene
There is actually very little solid information about her, and both scholars and traditions differ on the interpretation of what we do know.
She was a friend and follower of Jesus. Filled with sorrow over her sin, she anointed Christ, washed his feet with her hair. He exorcised seven demons from her. She was the first to have been visited by the Risen Christ. While there are several arguments about her life after the Crucifixion, the Greek Church maintains that she retired to Ephesus with the Blessed Virgin Mary and lived there the rest of her life.
Some things we do know for certain – Mary wasn’t Jesus’ wife or mistress, she wasn’t the mother of His child, and she didn’t found a royal dynasty or separate branch of Christianity.
- Patron Saint Index
Sg of Sgs 3:1-4
Jn 20:1-2,11-18
‘Have you seen him whom my heart loves?’
What does a broken heart look like? How does a broken heart feel? It is par for the course of living, and we will surely find ourselves not immune to brokenness in stranger depths even as we grow older. Can we ever escape loss, sorrow, or grief? Perhaps, the greatest loss is to lose oneself, to lose sight of one’s self as beloved. It can be a numbness with no comparison. Many are those who drift through days and duties, alienated from their own innermost parts.
At some point, I felt a deep yearning in my soul for something this world could not supply. It was something simple and primal. I was looking for my Lord, and the salve to the deep ache of having once been seen and loved for just who I am. Where is he? Where is he who loves me?
The Song of Songs reading sees a bride pining the loss of her lover. She is bereft and adrift in her search. From her bed to the streets of the city, she wanders and wonders, “I sought him whom my heart loves, I sought but did not find him.” Since she was already a bride, she must have known her lover personally and deeply; so this is not an unrequited love. She knows him and loves him and is loved in return; yet, she is unable to locate or hold on to him.
After a long night’s search, scurrying from door to door, after querying the watchmen on their rounds in the city, she suddenly and surprisingly discovers that, ‘scarcely had I passed them, when I found him whom my heart loves.’ These words paint the image of a bewildered discovery that her lover had been waiting beside her the whole while of her search, but her eyes were not looking in the right places.
How many have experienced frantically searching high and low for something important, perhaps a pair of eye-glasses, a mobile phone, a pen? To find, only after taking a deep breath and gathering one’s wits, that the object was perched on the head all along; the mobile phone was slung around the waist; and the pen was tucked in the pocket, or between the pages of a notebook in hand. What folly!
Likewise, this desperate search is mirrored in today’s Gospel reading where Mary Magdalen was bereft with grief, seeking Jesus at the burial tomb before dawn. Just as she lamented to Simon Peter and the other disciple, she confided again in the two angels sitting by the tomb where Jesus’ body would have lain, ‘They have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where they have put him.’ When she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, she did not recognise him, supposing he was just the gardener. Her unsettled and anxious heart spoke before she looked closely.
“Mary!” Jesus called to her. She immediately recognised Jesus and saw that it was him all along with her. He then said, “Do not cling to me.” These words are poetic and beautiful. The connection between the first reading and the gospel is no coincidence. Jesus wants the Bride and Mary Magdalen, and us too, not to cling too tightly to our old memories or ideas of him; not to only seek him in all the usual places; not to confine him to tried and tested experiences. Saint Mary of Magdalen, you have taught us to love our Lord with abandon; and you also showed us to adopt a child-like trust in his presence and love for you.
How many of us go out on famed pilgrimages, great adventures and quests, seeking achievements and recognition from others hoping to find some version of God, to find ourselves, to find a purpose larger than the present moment? All of those aims and things are indeed so beautiful when found. Yet after all these things, we may still come to realise at some point, the highs and adventure may return us to the age-old restless question, “I don’t know where I have put him.”
On a recent solo trip to a city I had never set foot in before, and in a language I do not speak, I spent many a long, quiet afternoon nursing a pleasurable and contented cup of coffee. With no one who knew me, and no one whom I would know, I found myself in a heightened sense of what simple beauty and joy felt like. Without distractions, without demands, my gaze settled gently upon my own surroundings. I found, to my surprise, that my Lord had been beside me all the while — he was smiling at me and taking pleasure in my enjoyment of this little cup. I felt him — there he was. His was a standing invitation to be with him, in the sacrament of each present moment.
There can be many small loves in one’s life, but there can only be one Supreme Love in life. There and then, like the Bride and Mary of Magdalen, I recognised my soul’s first love and lover with me all the while.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Debbie Loo)
Prayer: Jesus, Lover of my soul, I desire to remain with you and in you. Grant me the grace to sense and recognise you in the various moments of my day-to-day life. We pray for all who are overwhelmed and distracted by life’s demands, to find little pockets of time dwell with you.
Thanksgiving: My soul glorifies the Lord, for he has loved me from the very beginning and continues to lovingly pursue me each and every moment of my life.
OXYGEN 
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