III — WHOM DO YOU SEEK?

Easter Tuesday

Presence of God. — O Lord, may I always seek you alone, and in seeking you may I be granted to find you.

Meditation

1 — In the Masses of Easter week, the Gospel recounts the various appearances of the risen Jesus, of which the first and one of the most moving is that to Mary Magdalene (Jn. 20, 11-18). In this episode too Mary appears with her unmistakable characteristic of a soul wholly taken by the love of God. Arriving at the tomb, as soon as she has “seen the stone removed,” one thought alone preoccupies her: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb”; who has taken him? where have they laid him? And she says this to everyone she meets, supposing in all a concern equal to her own: she says it to Peter and John, whom she runs to alert; she says it to the Angels; she says it even to Jesus. The other women, seeing the tomb open, go in to learn what happened; she runs away quickly to bring the news to the Apostles. And then she returns: what will she do beside that empty tomb? She does not know; but her love brings her there and keeps her there, where the Master’s Body had been laid, whom she wants to find again at any cost.

She sees the Angels, but she is not amazed and does not tremble as the other women do: she is so absorbed in her love that in her soul there is no room for other emotions. And when the Angels ask her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” she has only one answer: “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Shortly afterward Jesus asks her the same question and Mary, still fixed on her thought, does not even recognize him; but “supposing him to be the gardener,” she says to him: “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him.” Her concern to find Jesus is so dominant in her that she does not even feel the need to name him; it seems to her that everyone must be thinking of Him, that everyone ought to understand her at once, as though in all there were a disposition of soul like hers.

When love and desire for God have taken full possession of a soul, there is no longer room in it for other loves, for other desires, for other concerns. All its movements are oriented to God, and through all things the soul does nothing but seek God alone.

2 — “If the soul seeks God, much more does the Lord seek her” (J.C. LF 3, 28). Mary has such great love, and behold the Lord himself seeks her, and seeks her by calling her: “Mary!” Though risen and glorious, Jesus is still the good Shepherd who knows his sheep; he knows them one by one, and “calls them by name and the sheep follow him because they know his voice” (Jn. 10, 3 and 4). Called by name, the woman recognizes the Lord and exclaims: “Rabboni! Master.”

Mary is once more at Jesus’ feet, her preferred place. Our thought sees her again in that same posture at Bethany while Martha is busy preparing the meal; we see her again in Simon the leper’s house when, on the Saturday before the Passion, she breaks the vase of precious ointment at Jesus’ feet and then bathes them with her tears and wipes them with her hair; we see her again at the foot of the Cross where she does not wish to detach herself from the divine Crucified One. It is always the same ardent love, making her forgetful and unconcerned about everything. Mary seeks only the Lord, wants only Him; the rest does not interest her and does not concern her. Once more she would like to clasp those blessed feet and remain there in loving contemplation; but Jesus gently says to her: “Do not touch me!”

Without doubt, the Lord reveals himself and gives himself to the soul that seeks him, but at the same time he always remains God, the Most High, the Inaccessible: “Do not touch me!” Though admitted to divine intimacy, the soul must not lose the sense of God’s transcendence, of the infinite distance between creature and Creator, between her who is not and Him who is. Indeed, the more the soul draws near to God, the more it realizes this infinite distance; and together with confidence and love there is born in it a profound sense of reverence before the Supreme Majesty of God.

“Whom do you seek?” Devout soul, to you, as to Mary Magdalene, Jesus today addresses this question, and can you answer him that you seek Him alone? Before appearing to the other holy women, Jesus appeared to Mary, “who loved him greatly.” If you want to find the Lord quickly, love him greatly and seek him with great love.

Colloquy

“O Lord Jesus Christ, how good and happy and how desirable a thing it is to feel the force of your love! Every day, ah! illumine my breast with the rays of so great a love, heal the darkness of my mind, enlighten the secrets of my heart, enrich my mind, kindle it, and gladden and strengthen my soul! Oh, how sweet is your mercy, how great is the sweetness of your love, O Lord Jesus Christ, giver of love, whose sweetness made those who love nothing else and desire to think of nothing but you! By going before us, you invite us to your love; you seize and draw us, so great is the force of your love. There is nothing that invites, seizes, and draws to love more than to go before in loving; for the soul that before was numb, when it feels itself loved first, is stirred; and if already fervent, when it knows itself loved and loved first, it burns the more.

“O most loving Lord Jesus Christ, though You have loved me unspeakably, yet I, impious sinner, keeping in my breast a stony and iron heart, did not recognize in me your burning love; and though I desired your love, I still did not will to love you. Deign, then, to give me help, O most merciful Lord Jesus Christ, and by the force of your most sweet love compel my rebellious soul to love you, that it may serve you peacefully and obtain the everlasting life of love” (Ven. Raymond Jordan).