Feast of St Mary Magdalene
Songs 3:1-4; Ps 62; Jn 20:1-2,11-18
On the occasion of the Feast Day of the Church of St Mary Magdalen, Berkeley, a parish community I’ve had the privilege of serving and praying with this past year.
I’m sure we’ve all experienced the grief of having to send someone whom we care for off as they leave for a long journey or it might be us who’s the one leaving. Either way, the thought of leaving our loved ones would quite often lead us to want to cling to them a little more, to snatch that little bit more time with them knowing that the separation may be lengthy. It’s a natural process, and one that demonstrates not just our connection with our families and communities but also our capacity to love. We build relationships because that’s what we do but the relationships also nurture our loving nature so that we’re truly able to go out to love one another.
This movement was shown so beautifully in today’s gospel where Mary Magdalene, who through her encounters with Jesus during his ministry, grew to love him as we all do. Her grief at the first moment of meeting him blinded her to his presence but hearing him call out her name reminded her of their relationship and allowed her to encounter the resurrected Christ before anyone else. The grief that quickly turned to joy made her want to cling to him, to have that little more time because that’s what we all want when we encounter our loved ones. The Lord’s telling her not to cling to him but to go tell the disciples about this might a little insensitive to us now, not allowing her time to grieve and soak in the joy of his presence.
But that’s the beauty of the love that our connection with others brings. Mary was joyful and wanted to stay with the Lord but his command must have ignited another aspect of the abundant love that she had within her – love for the other disciples. Her going immediately to tell them the good news shows how our love, like hers, should be expansive and outward looking. Clinging on to the Lord would have been a comfortable option and good as that would have been, there was a greater good that was before her. Telling the disciples about the resurrection was an act of selfless love, that took Mary outside of her own desire to stay a little longer with the Lord, but allowed her to share the joy and love with the disciples.
I feel that’s what we’re called to be and do. To nurture our love with the Lord through constant encounter in prayer and the sacraments but not to leave it there. We’re called to allow this love to be more expansive, to bring it out to nurture the love and faith of others. This has to be done with a good amount of prudence and care, given the pandemic and current health situation, but I believe if we’re able to follow Mary’s example even in small ways, our lives and that of those around us will be that much richer.
musings of a brush 