Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene
In the second option for the first reading, we hear Saint Paul describe a certain maturing of our knowledge of Christ. “Even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.” (2 Corinthians 5:16) Saint Paul is not denying the Incarnation when he says that we no longer know Christ “according to the flesh”, far from it! Instead, he is reminding us that the Cross and Resurrection have revealed more about Christ than what was known by the usual ways of knowing someone.
Saint Mary Magdalene experiences this on Easter Sunday. With her usual ways of knowing she looks upon the Risen Christ and thinks that He is the gardener. Christ makes all things new in the Resurrection, and is at first unrecognizable, by the old ways of recognizing. Yet, when Jesus speaks Mary’s name, she realizes that this is the One who knows her, and that He is calling her to a more profound knowledge of Himself now risen from the dead.
Saint Mary Magdalene then becomes the apostle to the apostles! She announced Christ’s rising to the apostles who themselves were not ready to receive her message, were not ready to know Christ beyond the limited ways they had known Him before. May this powerful intercessor pray for us, that we too may recognize more deeply the Risen Lord who knows us so profoundly.