[Question:]{.underline} Why did Our Lord not allow St. Mary Magdalene to touch him?
[Answer:]{.underline} The love of St. Mary Magdalene for our Divine Savior flowed immediately from her Faith in his divine power to forgive sins, and her awareness of her total dependence upon such forgiveness. It was why she could not bear to leave the Holy Sepulchre once she and the holy women and Saints Peter and John had seen that it was empty. Standing there weeping, all that she could think of was that someone had stolen his body. It was when Our Divine Savior, whom she thought to be the gardener, called her by name, that she recognized him. Attempting to adore Him and kiss His feet, as she had done (Lk 7:45) when He had forgiven her her sins, she was told these curious words: “Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God’” (Jn 20:17).
Quite different, indeed, was our Divine Savior’s reception of the others who saw him, as recorded in the Gospel. The other holy women, we are told, “embraced his feet and worshipped him” (Mt 28:9). Likewise the Apostles, to whom Our Lord showed his hands and his side, and especially St. Thomas, whom He invited to put his finger into the wounds of his hands and his hand into the wound of his side (Jn 20:27). Why the difference?
The key to understanding this mystery is in the literal translation of the Greek text of St. John’s Gospel, which means “Touch me no longer”. St. Mary Magdalene had touched and had been very attached to Our Lord’s sacred Humanity, from which she had received so much. However, Our Lord wanted to teach her the mystical lesson, so necessary for her to become the contemplative soul that she later was, namely not to be attached to anything on this earth, and to rise above the appearance of the senses, so as to live by Faith alone. It was not the same with the Apostles, who were the official witnesses of the physical Resurrection of Our Lord from the dead, and who consequently were to receive a multitude of outwards signs of the physical resurrection, including the physical touching and eating together with him. The mystical, loving soul of St. Mary Magdalene did not need these extra signs, but it was sufficient for her to believe what she had seen, which is likewise the Faith that we have, through the apostles’ testimony, as Our Lord said to St. Thomas: “Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.” (Jn 20:29)
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.