Tuesday, April 18 : Saint Augustine

“Jesus said to her: “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.” These words contain a truth we need to consider attentively. Jesus is teaching faith to this woman who had recognised him as her Lord and given him this title. The divine gardener was sowing a grain of mustard seed in Mary Magdalene’s heart just as he would have done in a garden… So what does it mean: “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father”?… By these words Jesus intended that faith in him, faith by which he is touched spiritually, should extend even as far as believing that he and his Father are one (Jn 10,30). Because whoever proceeds into him until they recognize him to be equal to his Father rises up to the Father, after a fashion, within the depths of their soul. Otherwise Christ is not touched as he desires; in other words, we do not have the faith in him he is asking for. Mary could have believed in him while still not thinking him to be the Father’s equal, which is what these words prevent her doing: “Stop holding on to me.” Namely: “Don’t believe in me according to your present mind. Don’t stop short at thinking about what I became for your sake without rising up to consider him by whom you were made.” How could she not believe – as yet in an only too human fashion – him for whom she wept simply as a man? “I have not yet risen to my Father.” “You will touch me when you believe that I am God and am wholly equal to the Father.”
maronite readings – rosary,team