To the modern mind, Saint Mary Magdalene doesn’t seem like a promising role model for monks. The Church’s mind thinks differently, and it benefits us to pay attention.
Let’s begin with the Offertory chant assigned for today. It reads, “Deus, Deus meus, ad te de luce vigilo [Psalm 62: 2].” “O God, you are my God, for you I keep watch at first light.” If we don’t associate Mary Magdalene with keeping a nighttime vigil, it is perhaps because we don’t read the Scriptures as carefully and synthetically as did our forebears in the faith. An important detail behind today’s gospel meeting between Mary and Jesus is found at the end of John Chapter 19:
“Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried [John 19: 41].”
Jesus is buried in a garden and there appears risen from the dead. The image of a garden brings up all kinds of resonances, including with Eden. When Jesus first sees Mary, he refers to her as “Woman,”–Adam’s first name for Eve–as He did His Blessed Mother at Cana when he earlier spoke of His “Hour” [see John 2: 4]. Jesus is the New Adam, come to reverse the sin of the First Adam.
Another resonance is with the Song of Songs, which happens to provide the First Reading on this feast. In that masterpiece of eros-poetry, filled with garden imagery, the Bridegroom frequently goes missing, forcing the Bride to persevere in pursuing Him. The Bride says:
On my bed at night I sought him
whom my heart loves–
I sought him but I did not find him.
I will rise then and go about the city;
in the streets and crossings I will seek
Him whom my heart loves.
I sought him but I did not find him.–Song of Songs 3: 1-2
Notice how this reading brings together the Psalm text with which we began, about keeping vigil at night. Mary Magdalene is not content to stay at home when her Lord is in the tomb. Her love impels her to go there in search of Him: “Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark [John 20: 1].” She finds an empty tomb, and not Jesus. Yet while Peter and John head home puzzled by the scene, she “remained outside the tomb [John 20: 11],” persevering, watching to see what happens, keeping vigil.
Saint Gregory the Great, the “Doctor of Desire,” saw himself as a watchman.
Saint Gregory the Great demonstrates his Benedictine sensibilities in a homily on this gospel, which is used for the Second Reading at this morning’s Office of Vigils.
“Though the disciples had left, she remained. She was still seeking the one she had not found…And so it happened that the woman who stayed behind to seek Christ was the only one to see Him. For perseverance is essential to any good deed, as the voice of truth tells us: Whoever perseveres to the end will be saved [Matthew 24: 13].”
The monastic life is dedicated to the search for God, keeping watch in the night for Christ’s return, contemplating God’s creatures for traces of God’s Word, yearning to see His beauty in all things. Like the Bridegroom, God evades easy capture by the Bride. Those who desire to make God their sole Good will have to step out into the night of naked desire and persevere in seeking Him through the heart’s desire. Many distractions and many doubts flood the mind that would pursue God alone. This is why monks urge each other on with the exhortation, “Persevere!” And in doing so, we are urging one another to imitate Mary Magdalene, whose love ensured that she saw Him Whom her heart loved.