Jeanette Renouf

My Dear Friends,

I recently read a poem by Jane Hirshfield about naming. The final lines of this poem say;

”from barest conception, the almost not thought of,
to heaviest matter, we name
them,
from glacier-lit blue to the gold of iguana we name them,
and naming, we begin to see,
and seeing, begin to assemble the plain stones of earth.”

Today we celebrate the feast day of Saint Mary Magdalene. In the scripture passage from John 20, Mary does not immediately recognize her beloved risen Jesus and thinks him the gardener. But when he says her name, she immediately recognizes him.

Cynthia Bourgeault has written extensively about this Mary but in her book Wisdom Jesus, she says that the reason so many who knew Jesus don’t initially recognize him is because he holds up a mirror to show his friends what stands in their way. He shows them what they have to look at and work at in themselves in order to be able to see him through the light of their own hearts.

For Mary, it is her grief that blinds her, her longing for his physical being and her perception that all is lost. When Jesus calls Mary by name, the scales are lifted from her eyes and she flings herself toward him. By telling her not to cling to him he shows her where she is stuck. “She was still looking for Jesus as a tangible corpse, not an intangible liveness. Only when her perspective shifted did he come into view.”

We, too, may have difficulty seeing the Christ presence in the world and naming it. Mary showed great courage in relating this amazing event to the other disciples. They probably thought she was delusional and crazy because they, too, were blocked from seeing the risen Jesus. Even today, many parts of the institutional church can’t believe that a woman can be trusted to proclaim the Gospel, to tell the truth of the love of Christ. Mary of Magdala is a symbol of courage to many women who will joyfully and gladly celebrate her feast day, especially this year.

May all of us have the scales lifted from our eyes and be able to see clearly the risen Christ present in our world today and, like Mary Magdalene, have the courage to name what we see.

Peace,

—Jeanette Renouf