By Madeline Larson

Christ Appears to Mary Magdalene, Lavinia Fontana, 1581. Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.
Lavinia Fontana, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

“And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed.” ~ Genesis 2:8

“The Lord God planted…”

I immediately thought of Mary Magdalene in the garden after the Resurrection when I read this simple little statement in today’s first reading. Who she thought was the gardener, the caretaker of the place, turned out to be Our Lord, risen from the dead. But Mary Magdalene was also right in a way that only God could have divinely influenced this type of humor. God, in the very beginning, was a gardener, a caretaker of all the living, a gardener who tended intimately all that He had created. This characteristic of God did not go away; and was all the more prominent in Jesus Christ, which is still true today.

Christ desires to plant seedlings of His love, truth, goodness, beauty, and virtues inside of you. They already exist! When Mary Magdalene reached out towards the physical body of Christ, He told her not to reach out for Him. This was because He was to live fully inside her, through the Holy Spirit. We all have this gift given to us that is Christ living inside of us.

The current winter months may be cold and seemingly lifeless, but it is a time of preparation, encouragement, and strengthening. Spring will come, and Christ desires to see us bloom and magnify Him in all that we do, say, and partake in. Just as we see God plant and tend in Genesis, Christ brought to bloom this harvest that was prepared. We are now waiting for Christ to come again – may we tend what God has planted in our hearts so that Christ may harvest anew every day.

Prayer:

Lord, thank you for the gifts and graces you have planted in my life. Help me to see what you have planted in my own life so I may partake in the fruitful, abundant harvest that you so desire.

Call to Action:

As we move quickly towards Lent, reflect on what the Lord has planted in your life and how it has bloomed. Pray to Him to see what He desires to plant in your life and how to seek after Him in your own soul.

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