Seeing Jesus Christ

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul, 22 July 2025
Tuesday, Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Song of Songs 3:1-4 ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> + ><}}}*> John 20:1-2, 11-18
“Martha and Mary Magdalene” painting by Caravaggio (1598). The painting shows Martha of Bethany and Mary Magdalene long considered to have been sisters. Martha is in the act of converting Mary from her life of pleasure to the life of virtue in Christ. Martha, her face shadowed, leans forward, passionately arguing with Mary, who twirls an orange blossom between her fingers as she holds a mirror, symbolising the vanity she is about to give up. The power of the image lies in Mary’s face, caught at the moment when conversion begins (from en.wikipedia.org).
Thank you dear Jesus
in giving us a chance to revisit
your Resurrection with this Feast
of St. Mary Magdalene,
the Apostle to the Apostles;
she whom you love so much
by forgiving her sins and later
called her by name on that
Easter morning reminds us of
your lavish mercy and love
for each of us; how lovely that
in that crucial moment of darkness
as she grieved your death
with your body missing,
she suddenly burst into deep joy
filled with life
upon seeing you!

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and what he told her (John 20:18).

“The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene” painting by Alexander Ivanov (1834-1836) at the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia from commons.wikimedia.org.
"I have seen the Lord."
I have seen you,
Jesus when I stop
clinging to my sinful past,
when I stop doubting
your mercy and forgiveness,
wondering how I could move
the huge and heavy stone of my
weaknesses and failures,
addictions and vices
that make me mistake
you into somebody else
like the gardener
because I am so preoccupied
with many things in life.

Teach me, Jesus
to stop clinging to you,
"touching" you and having you
according to my own view
and perception not as
who you really are
so that I may meet you
to personally experience you
right here inside my heart
like St. Mary Magdalene
that Easter.

The Bride says: The watchmen came upon me as they made their rounds of the city. Have you seen him whom my heart loves? I have hardly left them when I found him whom my heart loves (Song of Songs 3:1, 3-4).

"I have seen the Lord."
I have seen you,
Jesus when I love truly
like the Bride in the first reading
when I seek you in persons
not in wealth and power,
in silence not in the noise
and cacophony of vanity and fame;
let me see you Jesus
by being still,
patiently
waiting
and listening
for your coming
and calling of my name
to proclaim You are risen
to others who believe in You,
also searching You,
waiting for You.
Amen.

Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Our Lady of Fatima University
Valenzuela City
Painting by Giotto of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ appearing to St. Mary Magdalene from commons.wikimedia.org.

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