Who am I, and who are you?

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?”
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
“Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,”
which means Teacher. (John 20)

Volume 2-October 28, 1899

“What is my Love for you? And what is your requital for Me?”
Now, while at the first words I would have wanted to flee, frightened, from His presence, at these second words – “what is my Love for you?” – I found myself sunken, bound by His Love from all sides; so, my existence was a product of His Love – if this Love ceased, I would no longer exist. It seemed to me that the beats of my heart, my intelligence, and even my breath, were a product of His Love. I was swimming in Him, and even if I wanted to flee, it seemed impossible for me to do it, because His Love surrounded me everywhere. My love, then, seemed like a little drop of water thrown into the sea, which disappears and can no longer be distinguished. How many things I comprehended – but if I wanted to tell them I would be too long.
Then Jesus disappeared, and I was left all confused. I saw myself all sin, and in my interior I implored forgiveness and mercy. After a little while my only Good came back; I felt all soaked with bitterness and sorrow for my sins, and He told me: “My daughter, when a soul is convinced that she has done evil in offending Me, she already performs the office of Magdalene, who bathed my feet with her tears, anointed them with balm, and dried them with her hair. When the soul begins to look into herself at the evil she has done, she prepares a bath for my wounds. In seeing her evil, she receives bitterness and feels sorrow for it, and by this she comes to anoint my wounds with a most exquisite balm. From this knowledge, the soul would want to make a reparation, and in seeing her past ingratitude, she feels love arise within her toward a God so good, and she would want to lay down her life to attest her love; and this is the hair which, like many gold chains, binds her to my Love.”

Prayer Meditation- O Lord, we bless You, we adore You and we thank You not only for the mercy shown to sinners like Mary Magdalene- in fact sinners like me but how You reward repentance, love and faithfulness with the fullness of Your Resurrection! Let love arise in us for a God so good and bind us to Your Love!