Mary Magdalene

They Have Taken My Lord Away – Janet Morley

It was unfinished.

We stayed there, fixed, until the end,

women waiting for the body that we loved;

and then it was unfinished.

There was no time to cherish, cleanse, anoint;

no time to handle him with love,

no farewell.

Since then, my hands have waited,

aching to touch even his deadness,

smooth oil into bruises that no longer hurt,

offer his silent flesh my finished act of love.

I came early, as the darkness lifted,

to find the grave ripped open and his body gone;

container of my grief smashed, looted,

leaving my hands still empty.

I turned on the man who came:

"They have taken my Lord - where is his corpse?

Where is the body that is mine to greet?

He is not gone

I am not ready yet, I am not finished -

I cannot let him go I am not whole."

And then he spoke, no corpse,

and breathed,

and offered me my name.

My hands rushed to grasp him;

to hold and hug

and grip his body close;

to give myself again, to cling to him,

and lose myself in love.

"Don't touch me now"

I stopped and waited, my rejected passion

hovering between us like some dying thing.

I, Mary, stood and grieved and then departed.

I have a gospel to proclaim. 

Celtic Lent Day 8

God’s soul is the wind rustling plants and leaves,
the dew dancing on the grass,
the rainy breezes making everything to grow.
Just like this, the kindness of a person flows, touching those dragging burdens of longing.
We should be a breeze helping the homeless,
Dew comforting those who are depressed,
The cool, misty air refreshing the exhausted,
And with God’s teaching we have got to feed the hungry:
This is how we share God’s word.
Hildegard of Bingen

A life of faith should be one that seeks to fulfil Hildegard's words. To be present to God in the here and now is to be present to the places where we see need; we should be an echo of God's soul in the world.

Scripture
When the poor and needy seek water,
   and there is none,
   and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them,
   I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
I will open rivers on the bare heights,
   and fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
   and the dry land springs of water.
I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
   the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive;
I will set in the desert the cypress,
   the plane and the pine together,
so that all may see and know,
   all may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
   the Holy One of Israel has created it.
Isaiah 41.17-20

Celtic Lent Day 7

The Bright Field
I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the
pearl of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.
R. S. Thomas.

I think what R.S. Thomas' poem speaks of are those brief moments when we feel transcendent - connected to the divine, something outside of ourselves and much bigger than ourselves. Once you've felt that you want it to last forever.
Not hurrying to the future or hankering after the past means we must live in the here and now, the divine is in the here and now but like Moses we need to turn towards it and then have the curiosity to pursue it.

Scripture
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’
Exodus 3.1-3