Monday, July 22, 2024
Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
One of the most mystical of feasts
When you can’t sleep go for a long long walk. Trust the darkness to become luminous as you walk and pray. Insomnia, with its accompanying silence, always presents a spiritual opportunity.
I sought him but I did not find him. I will rise then and go about the city; in the streets and crossings I will seek Him whom my heart loves.
At the retreat we attended, our leader Ron Rolheiser suggested that we pray the Office of Matins when we wake up to pee at 3 am. Of course, what could be simpler!
Although that does not always mean we will become conscious of God’s attendance.
The watchmen came upon me, as they made their rounds of the city. I asked them, “Have you seen him whom my heart loves?”
They shook their heads. They had not seen Him. But no matter. God makes known the light of his presence to each of us in his own good time.
I had hardly left them when I found him whom my heart loves.
Be at peace my child. Jesus leans against a well. His words rest on me, as he wraps his arm around my little boy’s legs. I am just a young one, and he is grown-up, big and strong. We have all heard about what he’s done and what he’s preached and fed thousands from bits of bread and fish.
He turns his eyes down to my face. He rests his left hand on top of my head. His eyes run deep as a bottomless pool. He smiles, and I trust his smile. I will always trust his smile.
My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God. Thus will I bless you while I live; lifting up my hands I will call upon your name, and my mouth shall praise you.
Mary Magdalene received great love and great forgiveness from Jesus, and inspires others to recognize and receive Jesus’ love and forgiveness as she had. She stood below his cross with his mother and watched him die, and she discovered his empty tomb just three days later when she went at dawn to finish dressing him for burial.
But instead Jesus spoke to her. “Mary!”
When I imagine Jesus leaning against a well in the middle of a Galilean village, it might well be the village of Magdala, and Mary might already be following him, silently, unknowing, preparing for his death and resurrection.
And when I imagine the moment she met Jesus resurrected outside the tomb … “I thought you were the gardener!” … I become breathless with anticipation at meeting him myself, perhaps outside my own tomb this time, crying out to him, “Rabbi!”
As I take my own turn at ascending to my Father.
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!”
(Song of Songs 3, 2 Corinthians 5, Psalm 63, John 20)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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