We
love Mary Magdalen because of the way in which the boldness of her love for
Jesus made her stare death down beyond all human logic or hope. For her there is no question that the Messiah of Israel, sent to redeem all humankind,
and the Beloved of her most intimate heart are one and the same person.
She perseveres in weeping at the entrance to the tomb because she perseveres in
her love: the presence and actions of Jesus in her own life had taught her that
love is indeed stronger than death. Against all odds and logic, in a sort
of sublime madness, she clings to her Jesus dead or alive; and she
does not reason about a her relative physical strength when she says
ironically to the man she thought was the gardener, “Tell me where you laid
him, and I will take him away.” Because she loves Jesus so much, she is prepared to carry his body away
single-handed.
Such
passionate intensity surely was born from her gratitude at having had no less
than seven demons driven out of her by Jesus. As one
transformed by the healing power of Jesus’ love, she becomes “the apostle to
the Apostles,” since more than any of them she can easily believe in
Christ’s Resurrection. For all time St. Mary Magdalen stands as the foremost
embodiment of the soul thirsting for God, the soul passionately seeking God.
And in the end she does find him. “He whom her heart loves” is also the
Beloved of the Father who had first come seeking her. Mary
could find him because he first chose, in utter love, to put himself within her
reach.
Reflection by Father Simeon.
