Mary Magdalene

A. JACQUELINE SHAW

"And, behold, a woman ... which was a sinner ... brought an alabaster box of ointment."—Luke 7:37.

Semi-distraught, perchance thou paced the night:
Vain to seek counsel from the earth or sky—
The town beneath thee dark, or dimly lit,
Seeming as if earth's stars below did lie,
And up above, the unseeing void of heaven.
Mary, if this thy name, what thoughts did press
Even as a multitude upon thee then?
Where hadst thou heard the Master? Was it but
A word of his, caught up by thee, as when
A mother grasps her child and strains it to her breast?
What phantoms from thy past pursuèd thee?
It matters not; nor if the question came,
"Should such as thou seek out the man of God?"
To thy o'erburdened heart, weighed down with shame,
Some message must the morning star have brought,
Filled thee with light reflected from on high
Till, thy face wet with tears, thou mayst have thought,
"I will sell all I have and bring to him
My best—he will not scorn when I have given my all."
Ah Mary! May we kneel with thee before
The Christ, and with our own repentant tears
Pour forth the perfume of our gratitude
See Science and Health, p. 367 .
For sins forgiven. Hatred, strife, and fears
Too oft have found a foothold in our thought.
May we sell all we have of fear and pride,
When perfume by love's deeds exhaled is bought,
Meekly lay all before the feet of Christ—
Then, in the measure of our love, we win
Our pardon; then may it be said of us
As once of thee, cleansed, Mary, of our sin,
"Thou hast loved much and much shall be forgiven."

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