(Audio)
On my bed at night I sought him
whom my heart loves–
I sought him but I did not find him.
When we hear that we are supposed to have a personal relationship with Jesus we may still underestimate just how personal it is supposed to be. But here in the reading this morning we see that the Church applies the role of the Bride to Mary Magdalene and Bridegroom to Jesus himself. This is not meant to be an extraordinary grace to Mary Magdalene. It is rather her embodiment of what all the Church is meant to be.
"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church (see Ephesians 5:31-32).
Mary Magdalene shows us that none of us are too far gone to hope for this intimacy with Jesus. She herself had seven demons driven out of her (see Mark 16:9). She is one who loved much because of all the love she herself first received. And whatever else her past may have contained it nevertheless could not define her or constrain her. She was doubtless once a slave of darkness. Yet she became the first witness of the resurrection.
Jesus said to her, "Mary!"
She turned and said to him in Hebrew,
"Rabbouni," which means Teacher.
Her deep affection for Jesus made her stand persistently and perseveringly at the tomb weeping unable to let go of her LORD who was also the lover of her soul. May Mary Magdalene teach us to turn to Jesus from our own demons for healing and for the love for which we long. May she teach us to cling to him even in the darkest night of our own suffering until the resurrection power of Christ is at last revealed.
I had hardly left them
when I found him whom my heart loves.
What is it precisely that she can teach us? Thirst and the fulfillment of thirst, the living water of Christ.
My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
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