Saint Mary Magdalen Penitent - 22 July

Quoted from Catholicism.org [1]:

In order to know what great love is, one should study the beautiful penitent, who washed the feet of Jesus with the water of her tears, and dried them with the towel of her hair.

Saint Mary Magdalen’s audacity, her courage, her eagerness, gave Christian love a true impetus in all the saints that followed her. She was an outstanding girl, the love-flamings of whose heart, the love-anguishings of whose soul, consoled Our Lord when He needed comfort most ­ when His feet were pierced by nails, His head by thorns, and His heart by man’s ingratitude.

God would gladly make the world for the love one girl can give. Our Blessed Lady is God’s perfect maiden. But next to Our Lady, Saint Mary Magdalen is the girl in the life of Our Lord whom He most loved. She was His overwhelming favorite, because her love was the kind that never counts the costs. Her bright eyes were always full of tears ­ for Jesus alive and sitting at a feast, for Jesus dead and laid in a tomb.

How Saint Mary Magdalen first met Jesus, we are told in the Gospel of Saint Luke. Saint Mary Magdalen learned that Jesus was dining, one night, at the house of Simon, a Pharisee, and without waiting for an invitation or an introduction of any kind, she burst through the guests to get to Him. Her only thought was to show Jesus how thorough her love had made her sorrow and her repentance, for Mary Magdalen, the daughter of a rich and noble family, was reputed a great sinner.

Never once did she think of the reproaches and rebukes which the Jews would heap upon her, in the house of a Pharisee. The Pharisees believed that all sinners remained sinners; they believed that all except themselves were sinners. Unmindful of their scorn, Saint Mary Magdalen knelt behind Our Lord while He was seated in this house full of bearded misogynists, and washed His feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. And, kissing His feet, she anointed them with precious ointment.

Tears and kisses, the highest priced oils that money could buy, and hair which was her crown ­ these were her substitutes for words. And they were a thousand times more eloquent.

When Simon, the Pharisee who had invited Jesus to dinner, complained within himself saying: “This man, if He were a prophet, would surely know who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him, that she is a sinner,” Our Lord quickly defended Saint Mary Magdalen.

“Simon,” He said, “I have something to say to thee. . . . I entered into thy house, thou gavest Me no water for My feet, but she with tears hath washed My feet, and with her hair hast wiped them. Thou gavest Me no kiss; but she, since she came in, hath not ceased to kiss My feet.”

And then Our Lord uttered His glorious tribute: “Wherefore I say to thee: Many sins are forgiven her because she hath loved much.” And turning, Jesus said to Saint Mary Magdalen, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.”

[1] https://catholicism.org/mary-magdalen.html