Tempora: Tuesday in the Sixth Week after the Octave of Pentecost
III Classis – Missa “Me expectaverunt”
Scripture Texts:
📖 Canticle of Canticles 3:2-5; 8:6-7
📖 Holy Gospel according to St. Luke 7:36–50
On this day, the Church celebrates the feast of Sancta Maria Magdalena Pœnitens, the Penitent, model of contrition and faithful love. In the older Roman Missal, her feast bears the dignity of a III classis celebration—a mark of her great stature among the saints and penitents.
The Canticle of Canticles, mystically interpreted by the Fathers as the love between Christ and the soul, gives voice to the searching heart of the Magdalene:
“I will rise and go about the city: in the streets and the broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul loveth…” (Cant. 3:2)
St. Gregory the Great, in his Homilies on the Gospels, sees in this restlessness the mark of divine love:
“When the love of God stirs the heart, it cannot rest until it finds Him whom it loves. It rises, goes forth from self, and seeks Him even amid darkness.” (Hom. 33)
This search is no mere poetic image—it is the cry of every soul wounded by sin and awakened to grace. In Magdalene, we see the embodiment of that wounded soul who dares to love greatly, for “many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much” (Luke 7:47).
St. Ambrose, in his Exposition of St. Luke, reflects:
“She weeps over her sins and washes the feet of Christ. What greater proof can there be of faith? She who was once a sinner becomes the mirror of repentance.”
Indeed, in this Gospel scene—the anointing of Our Lord’s feet with precious ointment and tears—we find not a mere emotional moment, but a profound theological act. The Fathers teach us that Mary Magdalene’s gestures were liturgical: her tears were her ablutions, her kisses the kiss of peace, the ointment her oblation.
St. Augustine, preaching on this passage, notes:
“She laid aside her former life, and by her penitence, clung to Christ with all her heart. She was no longer the woman who had lived in sin, but the new creature of love.” (Sermon 99)
The Canticle continues, climaxing in a cry that might well come from her lips:
“Put me as a seal upon Thy heart… for love is strong as death, jealousy hard as hell… the lamps thereof are fire and flames.” (Cant. 8:6)
This is the burning love of the convert, the soul reclaimed from the brink of death, now clinging to the divine Bridegroom with unyielding fidelity. The “seal” upon the Heart of Christ is the soul that has found in Him her treasure and life. And Magdalene becomes, as the liturgy affirms, apostola apostolorum—the one sent to the apostles.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux, ever the mystical doctor of love, captures it:
“The soul that has known the mercy of Christ burns with a love that no waters can quench. She carries within her the flame of the divine fire, the longing to be united with the Beloved forever.” (Sermon on the Canticles 83)
Liturgical and Spiritual Application
On this feria of the Sixth Week after the Octave of Pentecost, as the green of hope adorns the altars, the Church gives us the Penitent Magdalene to contemplate. She teaches us the virtue of compunction, the strength of humble perseverance, and the boldness of love.
We are reminded that:
- No sin, however grave, stands beyond the mercy of God when approached with true contrition.
- The life of penance is not merely one of sorrow but of union—love that binds the soul to Christ.
- The fragrance of her ointment fills the house (Luke 7:37–38): the Church herself is sanctified by the repentance of her members.
In the Tridentine Missal, the Collect for St. Mary Magdalene expresses this spirit:
“O God, Who didst call blessed Mary Magdalene to the penance of her sins in the solitude of the desert, and didst fill her with a wonderful love of Thee: grant, we beseech Thee, that through her intercession and example, we may attain to the same love and to eternal glory.”
Let us, then, rise from the sleep of sin, go out into the streets of our own distractions, and seek Him whom our soul loves. He waits not with reproach, but with open arms, ready to say to us, as He said to the Magdalene:
“Thy faith hath saved thee. Go in peace.”
Prayer Suggestion:
Make a Holy Hour today in reparation for sins of the flesh and in thanksgiving for the mercy of God. Bring a single phrase to contemplation:
“Because she hath loved much…”—ask the Lord to ignite in your heart a flame of such love that no sin, shame, or fear can quench.