St. Mary Magdalene was full of tender love toward her Lord: it was that love that led her to the garden on Easter morning, where she hoped to anoint his Body with myrrh. And yet even that love, admirable as it is, had to be transformed. “Do not touch me, do not cling to me,” the Risen Lord told her. She was called to a higher love and a higher understanding: Jesus would not be present with the disciples as he was before. He was going to the Father, going to send the Spirit, so that he could be present with all of his disciples, throughout the ages, through the abiding of the Spirit. Let us beseech St. Mary Magdalene that our own affections too may be purified of everything earthly. Let us henceforth love everything in this world—friends, family, nature, all the innocent joys of life—and even everything in the Church—the hymns, the icons, the prayers, the rites—only as means toward union with God, who dwells far beyond, far above, this world and everything in it, beyond speech and beyond silence.
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