Rabbuni!
The love of Mary Magdalene for her Lord is so intense, so natural, so persistent. The apostles are still in hiding. Everyone is still in shock over the things "that have been happening in these last days in Jerusalem". Some of the disciples plan to go to Emmaus, away from the 'mad' city, discouraged that all their hopes have come to nothing. Thomas won't be seen for a whole week. Few women would dare to be out while it is still dark, and to go to the tomb where there are soldiers, who are perhaps still drunk from wine taken to keep off the cold of the night. Few people would want to be identified by the killers of the Lord, as having been one of his.
Not Mary Magdalene. She cannot give up. Even when her friends with whom she went to the tomb are scared by the vision and go back dump-founded without having seen the Lord, she is not satisfied. She must at least see his body and give it a decent burial after the hasty embalming done on the evening of his death at the onslaught of the Sabbath rest. Alone she dares to go back to the tomb. Blinded by her tears, or perhaps for some other reason, she cannot recognize the man speaking to her whom she mistakes for a gardener, not until he calls her name in a familiar tone. Then all of a sudden she is transformed. Sorrow turns to joy. Like a little exuberant girl she forgets herself and wants to clasp him full of Joy. She too responds in her unique and endearing way she has always addressed him, "Rabbuni". Yes, it is true: whoever searches always finds.
But her love must be recalled to a higher level than the simple love of a child. This is a love with a mission, a love that must restrain itself in order to give life to others. She has the mission as first to transmit the news of the risen Lord. "The love of Christ compels us..." and from now Mary's love for Jesus must compel her to bring the good news of his resurrection to others.
Mary teaches us to seek the risen Lord with persistence, even when our search seems to be fruitless. If we search long and ardently enough, the Lord will show himself. How do we search for the risen Lord? In the first reading, Peter shows us the first step. When asked by the Jews what they must do, after failing to recognize the Lord when he came, and instead putting him to death, Peter says: “you must repent”. Our unrepented sins prevent us to meet the risen Lord, no matter how hard we search. Peter adds that when they have repented and been baptized, they will also receive the Holy Spirit. We who were baptized do not need baptism again. However, our unrepented sins prevent the Spirit to be active in us. When we repent, the Spirit of the risen Lord becomes active in us again and leads us in the life of the risen Lord. Besides repentance, we must persistently search for the Lord in prayer until our life is in union with him, until it is no longer us living but the Lord living and acting in us.
