The Feast of St Mary Magdalene | Friday 22 July 2022

Today is Friday the 22nd July, the feast of St Mary Magdalene.

The Choir of Royal Holloway sings, ‘Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled’, by Dan Locklair. Today we will hear of Mary Magdalene meeting Jesus in the garden after the Resurrection. You might like to begin today by placing yourself there now, as you hear this piece of music…

Let not your heart be troubled:
ye believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father’s house are many mansions:
if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again, and receive you unto myself;
that where I am, there ye may be also.


Today’s reading is from the gospel of John.

John 20:1-2, 11-18

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Today we celebrate the feast of Mary Magdalene, whom Pope Francis calls the Apostle of the apostles: the one sent by the Risen Jesus to announce the Resurrection to the Apostles.
Listening to this account now, what feelings arise within you?

Mary faces the loss of her Lord with the desire to honour him in the traditional way. Wanting to do the right thing, she encounters a greater distress. Getting involved can lead us to uncomfortable places. Have you had such an experience? Reflect on this now.

Even now, Mary finds the strength to make the next step; to go to her friends for help. But she doesn’t leave them to take over. As distressed as she is, she returns to the tomb and her encounter with the angels. Mary seems to navigate this new reality with such pragmatism. Maybe it is the depth of her grief that has her ‘going through the motions’. Is this something you are familiar with? How would you imagine your response?
Listen again to the scene…let it unfold in your mind…

Through her tears, and still wanting to complete her mission, Mary finally encounters Jesus in his risen form. We have no sense of time here between the recognition and the sending. We can take time, now, to place ourselves in this encounter with the Lord and to hear what he is sending us out to do today.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.