The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate the power of Love to transcend as we meditate on the role of Love in the life of the “Apostle to the Apostles.”
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| Love Garden |
The reading from the Song of Songs shares a dream of Love.
* [3:2] The motif of seeking/finding here and elsewhere is used by later Christian and Jewish mystics to speak of the soul’s search for the divine.1
Psalm 63 praises comfort and assurance in God’s Presence.
* [63:4] For your love is better than life: only here in the Old Testament is anything prized above life—in this case God’s love.2
The Gospel of John shares the Resurrection of Jesus and His appearance to Mary Magdalene.
* [20:11–18] This appearance to Mary is found only in John, but cf. Mt 28:8–10 and Mk 16:9–11.3
Molly Mattingly invites us to place ourselves in that resurrection scene in today’s Gospel. Mary Magdalene has been seen in light of each meaning of her name over the centuries, depending on which other woman in the Gospels people have conflated with her.
We know from scripture that she experienced conversion and healing through Jesus, that she remained with Jesus through his crucifixion, and that she was the first (or at least among the first few) to see Jesus after the resurrection. She was the first evangelist of the resurrection. She must have been very close to Jesus to be available to such a revelation.4
Don Schwager quotes “The love of Christ enflamed her,” by Gregory the Great (540-604 AD).
"Mary Magdalene, who had been a sinner in the city (Luke 7:37), loved the Truth and so washed away with her tears the stains of wickedness (Luke 7:47). Her sins had kept her cold, but afterward she burned with an irresistible love... We must consider this woman's state of mind whose great force of love inflamed her. When even the disciples departed from the sepulcher, she did not depart. She looked for him whom she had not found... But it is not enough for a lover to have looked once, because the force of love intensifies the effort of the search. She looked for him a first time and found nothing. She persevered in seeking, and that is why she found him. As her unfulfilled desires increased, they took possession of what they found (Song of Songs 3:1-4)... Holy desires, as I have told you before, increase by delay in their fulfillment. If delay causes them to fail, they were not desires... This was Mary's kind of love as she turned a second time to the sepulcher she had already looked into. Let us see the result of her search, which had been redoubled by the power of love." (excerpt from FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 25)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 20:1-2, 11-18 comments that in the instant that Jesus said her name, Mary knew that death had not been able to defeat Jesus. He was alive! And so were her hopes and dreams. She had not spent the past few years in vain. Everything she had given up to follow the Lord had been more than worth it. Her life would continue to have meaning and purpose. She would still be Jesus’ disciple, and now she would also proclaim his resurrection.
What is the meaning and purpose of your life? Is it to love and serve Jesus? Mary Magdalene would tell you there is no greater thing you can do. She would tell you that it is worth everything—your time, your possessions, your energy, and even some pleasures in life—to follow him. Because he will always love you. Because he will never leave you. And because his plans for you are always greater than anything you could ever conceive of or imagine.6
Friar Jude Winkler reflects on Mary discovering Jesus and her role in a “new creation” in the garden. Her encounter is one of three in the Gospel where Jesus is not initially recognized. Friar Jude reminds us that Mary Magdalene is the “proto-apostle”.
Junno Arocho Esteves of the Catholic News Service reports on the action of Pope Francis to elevate the memorial of St. Mary Magdalene to a feast day in June 2016.
Preaching about St. Mary Magdalene, Pope Francis highlighted Christ's mercy toward a woman who was "exploited and despised by those who believed they were righteous," but she was loved and forgiven by him.
Her tears at Christ's empty tomb are a reminder that "sometimes in our lives, tears are the lenses we need to see Jesus," the pope said April 2, 2013, during Mass in his residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae.7
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Diarmuid Ó Murchú, an Irish poet, author, friend, and member of the Sacred Heart Community. The article features a poem that highlights the presence of Mary Magdalene and the women at Jesus’ death and resurrection. Ó Murchú reflects:
Of all the Gospel material related to women, none is more enigmatic and empowering than the role of the women in post-Resurrection space . . . I [wrote of] the women on Calvary remaining faithful to the end. For those women, it was anything but an end. Even when the male disciples fled in fear, they remained to await a new frightening dawn that would propel them into a mission transcending all other missionary endeavors recorded in Gospel lore. The early church seemed unprepared for the archetypal breakthrough and proceeded to consign the women to historical invisibility.8
The quality of Love demonstrated by Mary Magdalene calls us to trust that our relationships with Love also transcend time and space.
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