A HEART LONGING FOR GOD


FEAST OF SAINT MARY MAGDALENE

Song 3:1-4; Ps 63:2-6,8-9; Jn 20:1-2,11-18

The yearning of Our Hearts for God

We pause our meditation on the journey of the children of Israel to the promised land, to celebrate the life of Mary Magdalene. The story of Mary Magdalene is an example of the transformative power of grace, made abundant for us through the life, death, and resurrection of the Son of Man. The snapshots of her life in the Gospel capture for us the three stages of our transformation or mystical journey into the mysteries of Jesus Christ. Mary came into the scene in the scripture, Lk 8:2, as one of the women attending to Jesus, from whom he cast out seven demons. Many identified her with the prostitute who came to Jesus as he was dining in the house of Simon the Pharisee, to weep at his feet in repentance. The identification may be true or not. What is certain is that Mary Magdalene had a past that made her passionately devoted to the Lord. At this first mention of her, we see her attending to the Lord and his disciples. “And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had come out.” It must have been a terrible experience for Mary to contain seven demons. Her deliverance made her attend to the Lord with special care.

Her knowledge of the Lord grew with her constant interest and attention on the Lord. Likewise, her love and devotion to his mission. Our regular attention is a requirement for our interest in the Lord to grow. With a growing interest, we will relate every aspect of our lives to the words and teachings of the Lord. We will develop a personal interest and relationship with the Son of Man as we see the gift he is to us personally. These personal ruminations and discussions are the processes that transform us from the status of wedding attendants to brides of the heavenly groom. The passage from Songs contains the inner activities in a soul the Lord is drawing to himself. “On my bed, at night, I sought him whom my heart loves. I sought but did not find him.” The searching on the bed and in the night indicates an introspective search for the one the heart is racing towards. The night activities can only follow on a full day of sensible observances or witnessing of the activities of the Son of Man, for our hearts go back at night to what preoccupied them in day. If we follow the Lord about in the day, attending to his needs and those of his disciples like Magdalene, our night is bound to be full of thoughts of his words and actions. The remembrance in the night makes us long to encounter him spiritually. It makes us leave our repose in search of him. “So I will rise and go through the City; in the streets and in the squares, I will seek him whom my heart loves.” The search is spiritual and also manifest in everything we do.

At this stage, we readily express our longing and desire for the Lord as a sign of our growing love. We are ready to evaluate every aspect of our lives, to understand how each relates to him. We re-evaluated everything related to us in any way in the light of our growing love for him. The rising and going through the City, searching in the streets and squares, imply this. The watchmen are all that have guided or directed our decisions and actions thus far; these are recognised and reorganised for easy coming and going of the Son of Man to us and we to him. “The watchmen came upon me on their rounds in the City: ‘Have you seen him whom my heart loves? Scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom my heart loves.” We find the Lord easily in our hearts when everything is ordered well according to the word of God in our hearts. When the Lord takes the first place in our hearts, then we have become brides of the heavenly groom. “O God, you are my God, for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water.” The psalm captures the sentiments of Mary Magdalene at the death of Jesus Christ. The love of God has transformed her into a bride, which made her want to cling to him when he called her by her name at the resurrection. “She knew him then and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbuni!’—which means Master. Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.” These three are above all other gifts from God: faith, hope, and charity; the greatest of them is charity, for it transforms us into brides and unites us with the Son in mystical union; it united Mary to Christ.

Let us pray: O God, whose Only Begotten Son entrusted Mary Magdalene before all others with announcing the great joy of the Resurrection, grant, we pray, that through her intercession and example we may proclaim the living Christ and come to see  him reigning in your glory. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.     

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