Noli me tangere!

Detail from Noli Me Tangere by Giotto di Bondone

Today's gospel includes the account of the post-Resurrection encounter between the Risen Christ and Mary Magdalene. FB friend LM posted this reflection today:

Mary Magdala’s Easter Prayer

I never suspected

   Resurrection

      and to be so painful

      to leave me weeping

with joy

   to have met you, alive and smiling, 

      outside an empty tomb

with regret

   not because I’ve lost you

   but because I’ve lost you in how I had you –

      in understandable, touchable, kissable, clingable flesh

   not as fully Lord, but as graspably human.

I want to cling, despite your protest

   cling to your body

   cling to your, and my, clingable humanity

   cling to what we had, our past.

But I know that . . . if I cling

   you cannot ascend and

I will be left clinging to your former self

… unable to receive your present spirit.

by Ronald Rolheiser, OMI

 
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