Sunday, August 26, 2012

Noli me tangere: college edition


I took a course some years back on images of Mary Magdalene. We looked at many examples of "Noli me tangere" figures -- this Caravaggio among them. Though the Latin translation reads "Don't touch me!" the original Greek (Μή μου ἅπτου) is better translated as "don't keep on clinging to me."

I thought of this Gospel today when we left Crash at Wonderful Jesuit University. I wanted to cling to him, to freeze this frame here and now. Instead I hugged him hard, kissed him and blessed him as I have done almost every night of his life, making the sign of the cross on his forehead and saying, "May God and all his angels watch over you." Then watched as he ducked through a doorway and into the next phase of his life.

We went to Mass together this morning, and listening to his voice, firmly reciting the Creed next to me, left me in tears. My tears were not for the imminent parting, but in awed and sudden recognition of what had happened. Crash, now professing what I promised for him at his baptism, is an adult.


Image is from Wikimedia.




8 comments:

  1. oh. Thank you so much for this. We will be launching our firstborn in two summers. What a milestone for all.

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    1. Enjoy these crazy pre-launch years. At least for us, there were lots of trial launches, that in the end I think made it easier for us all.

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  2. I am sitting here with tears rolling down my face. Blessings for you all!

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  3. Not only the milestone, and the awe but the consciousness to bless the occasion and to mark it with a sign. To pause and reflect, and to see the abundance of God.

    Well done trusted servant.

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    1. There was a lot of blessing going on...and I was glad of it!

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  4. God bless him, and you, as he embarks on this new adventure! I am sitting here missing my oldest, a junior in college this year. The house is emptier without him--but I am taking comfort that this year, he has a school apartment, so he'll be calling me often for cooking advice. (Already got that 5:45 PM call: how long do chicken thighs take to defrost?)

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    1. Did you tell him longer than he has before dinner? Years ago we had a delightful college junior who babysat for us and made many of those calls to her grandmother, who once delivered that line when asked how long it took to make her famous meatballs!

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