As most of you know, I’m a baker and right now in my new kitchen, I’m in heaven. I’ve not only got a new electric stove, I’ve got two ovens. That’s right, I have two ovens, a narrower one stacked above a much larger one, both below the stove’s glass cooking surface. Imagine my surprise early the other morning when I walked into the kitchen to find the interior lights of both ovens glaring out at me. I turned on the overhead lights and scanned the stove’s keypad. Nothing there to punch. I then turned the oven switches on and off. Nothing there. I then double checked the contact points on the oven doors to make certain they still functioned. I returned later in the day, repeating my procedures, thinking !’d missed something the first time around. Still, no luck. Not having the manual that came with the new stove, I texted the owner. Another day passed and then the third roommate, a pilot, returned home from a week of flight training. Naturally. I asked him to look at my oven problem. He did, and within a few seconds he had solved it! The oven lights were no longer on. Everything was back to normal. What had he done that I didn’t do? It was very simple. He, too, looked at the stove’s keypad, the same keypad I’d looked at, and pushed the button that controlled the oven lights. Presto! Why hadn’t I done that? The light symbol on the button was not like the one I’d trained myself to see. A light bulb or a circle with dashes emanating out from it would have been sufficient. In this case the light symbol looked like a mechanical symbol, a circle alright but with short dashes which made it look like a gear wheel. More surprising, my mind was so convinced that what I was scanning was so unrelated to the oven lights that I didn’t even bother to try it! The lack of curiosity on my part is appalling. I was looking for the answer elsewhere. The answer was right there all the time, hidden in plain sight.
The same may be said of the figure of Mary Magdalene. For many different reasons, she has been hidden from plain sight for centuries and only now, is being brought into the light of day thanks to Biblical scholars who are studying more thoroughly Mary’s place in those early days as described in the New Testament’s four gospels and also in other related documents. My interest in Mary Magdalene has grown leaps and bounds over these last weeks. This morning, while quietly speaking-out my daily mantra to “keep open for a miracle”, that of finding a partner for me, someone who would be a perfect match. Can you imagine my shock when I made the connection between my mantra and Mary Magdalene! Is this the partner, the perfect match, the Universe has lined up for me? I’m literally dumbfounded by the notion! I said in one of my recent poems that my desire for a partner may simply be a “lingering lust for rejuvenation”. Would not Mary Magdalene give me that? But I want someone I can hold physically, tenderly, in my arms, and maybe even be held, in turn. Can Mary Magdalene provide that? One of my favorite recordings is a duet, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga singing Nature Boy. The lyrics contain one line I’m drawn to again and again as absolutely true, something everyone, without exception, desires in their heart of hearts: “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is to love and be loved in return”. I’m also fully aware that Jesus’ love was ultimately more radical, a love without expectation of a reciprocal love. But here’s my question: does the one love exclude the other? I can imagine the love that Mary Magdalene and Jesus shared included both which might turn out to be the most radical love of all, a spiritual and sensual love of the highest order!
