On the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, the Liturgy proposes to us the passage from John that concerns her most closely, as it challenges every soul in its search for the Master.
"Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" (Jn 20:15).
Mary of Magdala wept for her Lord, near the tomb. Lost and grieving, she grieved not knowing where he was, until Jesus made himself present.
Clare too, in the enclosure of San Damiano, wept while praying for her Christ, uniting herself to his Passion, while awaiting the Resurrection.
In the Legend we read:
"She had now fixed her burning gaze of interior desire in the Light and, having transcended the sphere of human vicissitudes, she opened the field of her spirit wide to the rain of Grace.
[...]
Very often, prostrate in prayer with her face to the ground, she bathed the ground with tears and brushed it with kisses: so that she seems always to have her Jesus in her arms, whose feet she bathes with tears, on whom she imprints kisses" (FF 3197).
Clare sought the Lord interiorly, even for those who did not desire Him.
She was careful not to hold back Christ who ascended to the Father, living the proclamation of the Resurrection with a face of light, testifying to the present vision of Him to the brothers and sisters who approached her.
He lived the perennial earthly Exodus in view of the Promised Land, which he already savoured in small doses.
Francis, for his part, jester of the Resurrection, mourned the Passion of Love, corroborated by existential rebirth.
Again, in St Bonaventure's Major Legend:
"To those who saw him, he seemed a man from another world: one who, his mind and face always turned to heaven, strove to draw all upwards" (FF 1072).
Just as Mary of Magdala made the transition from the outside [near the tomb] to the inside of her own soul and vicissitude - to recognise the Risen Jesus.
So Francis, after living on the outside, among cheerful Assisian brigands, had encountered the 'Rabbuni' within his heart. Recognising and deciphering the Master of his life, in prayer before the Crucifix at San Damiano.
There he found God, he found himself again; in the midst of weeping and perfect joy.
Jesus also asked him the question: "Why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" (Jn 20:15).
The Damianite Crucified became the place of his resurrection, where the weeping of a missed life, spent in solace, gave way to the Calling by name, in view of personal and community regeneration.
At San Damiano, when a divine Voice came to him from the Crucifix inviting him to change his life, the Poor Man uttered this prayer
"Rapture, I pray thee, O Lord,
the burning and sweet power of your love
my mind from all things that are under heaven,
that I may die for love of thy love,
as thou hast deigned to die
for love of my love" (FF 277).
St Mary Magdalene (Jn 20:1-2.11-18)
