The Love Of My Soul
Julián Carrón - “On my bed, throughout the night, I sought the love of my soul.” It is not difficult to imagine someone who has truly found “the love of her soul” and who, even during the night, seeks the love that has overwhelmed her.
She can no longer help but feel wholly drawn by that love: “I will rise and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek the love of my soul,” we read in the Song of Songs. When she meets the guards patrolling the city, she asks them, “Have you seen the love of my soul?” And it continues: “I had just passed them when I found the love of my soul.” She had fulfilled the desire that would not let her sleep.
It is striking that the Church celebrates the feast of Mary Magdalene—whose previous life we all know—in a way that coincides with the Gospel passage we have heard. Mary of Magdala had found “the love of her soul” and was so overwhelmed by it that, as John’s Gospel recounts, “on the first day of the week, early in the morning, while it was still dark,” she—unable to sleep—went to the tomb.
To look for “the love of her soul,” she went there and then returned to the disciples to say she had not found him. They, too, ran to the tomb and, finding it empty, left. Mary, however, stayed, weeping, until a presence approached her and asked, “Woman, why are you weeping?” “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him,” she replied. She turned and saw Jesus, but did not recognize him. Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”
“Tell me where you have laid him,” she said, thinking he was the gardener, “and I will go and get him.” But Jesus, whom she did not recognize, said to her, “Mary!” How he must have spoken her name—filled with emotion at seeing her like this—for that alone was enough for her to recognize his love: “Rabboni!”
The one who had been a stranger—mistaken for the gardener—now reveals himself to her. As one recognizes the voice of a beloved, she recognized him by the way he made her feel fully herself.
In that “Mary!” lies all the newness, all the difference that Christ brings into the life of those who encounter him. There is no possibility of confusion, because that presence makes a person truly themselves. How does this happen? Could Mary, even with all her energy, abilities, and achievements, ever have reached that level of emotion and self-awareness except when moved by that presence? Like her, we cannot be ourselves unless the Event happens again, as a new beginning for each of us.
In fact, together with the Church we celebrate this day in a wholly unique way, as if to say: only if we find “the love of our soul”—which occurs, as it occurred for this woman, whatever our previous life may have been, whatever our history may be—can we truly experience the same difference she experienced, because we were all made to attain that fullness without which life is not life.
For this reason, today we give special thanks to Mary Magdalene, who has shown us what Christianity is in a way that excludes no one, because only Christ can give us what would otherwise be impossible. It is enough, then, to go along with the “impossible correspondence” that overtakes the life of those who encounter him.
Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene - Mass of the Quadratini Association
Notes from the homily of Fr. Julián Carrón - July 22, 2025
