Noli Me Tangere

 “Don’t touch me,” Jesus says to Mary Magdalene when she happens upon him in the cemetery where he was buried.  What is that all about?  As someone said, it might be about mysticism.  The mystic never knows God in thought or words, never grasps God with assurances on that scale.  The mystic only knows God by love, more obscure than thoughts and words that attract the scientific age of today.  Many a Christian want to touch God to be assured of their faith, to decrease their fears of life.  That is why they like “things” to touch and see, such as crucifixes, holy cards, statues and such.  These appeal to the imagination and to the mind.  But for the mystic, to which Mary Magdalene is called, God can never be so touched with such physical assurance.  God can be loved and such love energies us to live out the teachings of Jesus found in the Gospels.  When Mary was following Jesus about, her life was changed and she loved him.  Now he, risen, calls her to a new and deeper life, the mystical, in which love becomes more profound, deeper, more transformative.  She will see and touch with an inner eye, and a soul touch.  So why am I in a monastery? “Noli Me Tangere.”