Memorial of Saint Mary Magdalene
(This reflection is based in part on the optional passage from Song of Songs for the first reading)
Today is the Memorial of Saint Mary Magdelene. Like many of the earliest disciples, little is known about the life of Mary Magdelene. There are several enduring legends about her life after the Lord’s Ascension, but we really cannot be certain about their validity. Even the widely held notion that she was a repentant sinner is not based in historical fact. What we do know for sure is truly the most important thing. As Jesus says in the gospel, she has “loved much”. When I try to imagine the way she loved Jesus, I think of the word “fierce”. This is strong and curious way to describe the way a person might love, but that is the word that comes to mind when I think of the way she loved him. Obvious negative connotations aside, I see the fierceness of loving as that aspect which grips and impassions and compels one toward a single focus—to become one with the beloved.
All of the readings today speak of longing and desiring, seeking and finding. In the first reading from the Song of Songs we find the bride longing for her beloved. “I sought him whom my heart loves 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. (Songs 3:1-2) In the passage from the Gospel of John, Mary Magdelene echoes this as she cries, “They have taken my Lord from the tomb, and I don’t know where they laid him”. (Jn 20:13) These passages bring to mind images of a lover completely forlorn and lost with out their beloved other. It paints a picture of one who senses everything depends on finding the one they love. Indeed, Mary Magdelene knew that her very life depended on Jesus. She became desperate when she thought Jesus had been taken and meant to find him no matter what it involved or the personal cost to her.
So what does it really mean to love fiercely? It means loving exactly as God loves. It means living that love exactly as Jesus did. It means walking through fire, and even death, for the beloved other. It means staying with and suffering for—and because of—the other. It is being completely vulnerable and open to the other. It means completely abandoning all that seems safe and placing oneself completely at the mercy and disposal of one’s beloved. The love that is fierce withholds nothing from the other and returns all to them as well. A love that is fierce cannot conceive of an eternity without the beloved other. I suspect if I pray and ask God for the grace to know how I can love him more deeply—fiercely—he will quickly answer me should I be willing to listen. I suspect I will need to be transformed in much deeper ways. I look at the transformation that Jesus underwent between his death and resurrection. John’s Gospel says, “…she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus.” (Jn 20:14) Then Jesus speaks to her and Mary suddenly realizes it is her beloved Lord. This radical transformation was a consequence of a love that was so deep, so eternal—so fierce—that even death was defeated in the face of it. I believe love can be fierce. In the big picture, that aspect of love is surely necessary in our struggle to become one with God.
O Holy Mysterious God,
I thank you and praise you for the love you have lavished on me.
You have refused to let me go.
You have refused to give up on me.
Your love is and always will be fierce!!
Grant me the grace this day to love much.
Just to love much.
With the intercession of the Blessed Virgin,
Through Jesus Christ. AMEN
Gail Lyman