St Mary Magdalene - 22nd July

Today is the feast-day of St Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles, and Patroness of the Order of Preachers. We're lucky to have her! As I think about her now, you know, she's quite an inspiration, a good teacher.

In the Gospel according to John, we read:

"Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb, ..."
(John 20:8-11)

Just these few verses got me thinking - about how the disciples left and she stayed. They went home, but she had no home to go to.
JESUS was her home - that's why.
The disciples had left everything to follow JESUS, but I suppose here you could say that as yet JESUS didn't wholly possess them - they had left everything, but as yet they hadn't given Him their very selves, they didn't realise that they couldn't do without Him. So they went home ... sad? yes; ...lost? yes, probably; ...confused? surely; ...disappointed? I think definitely so. They didn't have JESUS any longer, He was gone. Where were they to go? What to do now? They had homes, they could pick up their lives again, the lives - the everything - they had left and try to keep going ... that would fill the void that JESUS had left in them.

But when JESUS reached out to Mary that first time, and saved her - she had been about as far away from Him as it is possible to be - had given up even on herself. It was a miracle, a wondrous miracle that He would even look at her, not to mind want her. But she saw that He did, and when she saw Him, she saw that He was everything and that now, knowing Him, her life would be nothing ... she would be nothing ... without Him, apart from Him.

He was her home.

He is our home.

He is my home. The ground beneath my feet.

Thank God for St Mary Magdalene, may she pray for us that we may find our way home.