Get ready to celebrate your divine Valentine’s Day.

April 19, Tuesday, Octave of Easter
Daily Readings: Acts 2:36-41, Gospel John 20: 11-18

Get ready to celebrate your divine Valentine’s Day.

In the minds of many believers, Mary Magdalene continues to be a sinner, a prostitute, and one who housed seven demons within her, despite the clarification Pope Paul VI gave and the elevation by Pope Francis of her memorial a formal full-fledged feast.

Imagine that you happen to be praying at the tomb of your beloved husband or wife, father or mother, who was buried the previous day. And the deceased wakes up in a disguised form and asks you, "Why are you weeping?" What do you imagine would happen to you? Have you lost someone around here?

In that terrifying time, according to John, the Apostle of Love, Mary uttered the only word "rabboni," an Aramaic word that would speak volumes in that context. That moment was beyond all that she had ever imagined or dreamt. She was lifted to her 7th heaven. "Rabboni, you are not dead." I wanted to believe you would never die. Now I know it. I have seen you. You are my eternal Valentine. And she became sure that she was the beloved of the Divine. She has just one message to the other disciples and the entire world: "I have seen the Lord." The Master chose her to be "the apostle to the apostles." That was the moment she must have felt she was born for.

What matters most to Jesus' followers is not the number of prayers they say but the love generated when they are in His divine company. The non-verbal articulations of "I have seen the Lord" affected the listeners, as it happened to all those around Peter, and 3000 more joined the new way.

As you go back, remembering Mary-Rabboni's encounter, spend some time alone in the garden, waiting for a divine Valentine experience.