Florence + The Machine + Divine Mercy

Somewhere in between thesis chapters I got hooked on the ethereal power-ballads of Florence + The Machine last year. Florence Welch's lyrics get more interesting with each listen. In particular, the song "Blinding" from her first album can have several different interpretations. At first glance, it's about a girl realizing she needs to break free of a toxic relationship. But one line tipped me off that it could also reference Mary Magdalene on Easter Sunday.

 "No more dreaming of the dead, as if Death itself was undone.

No more crying like a crow, for a boy, for a body in a garden" 

Noli Me Tangere, Lambert Sustris, late 16th century

In the song, realization of truth overwhelms the subject both emotionally and physically.

Felt it in my fist, in my feet, in the hollows of my eyelids

Shaking through my skull, through my bones, and down through my ribs.

Like a repentant sinner freed from the seven demons that plagued her, the song's subject has rejected her past ways forever.

No more dreaming like a girl, so in love with the wrong one...

And I could hear the thunder and see the lightning crack

All the world was waking, I never could go back. 

Mary Magdalene's encounter with Jesus, both during the thunderstorm at the foot of the Cross and then at His Resurrection in a garden, gave her the strength to change her life and brought her into a new reality of redemption.

Noli Me Tangere, Martin Schongauer, 15th century

Their meeting on Easter Sunday is one of the most poignant scenes in literature. Her heartbreak, confusion, and final joyful surprise get me every time. Jesus' line of "Woman, why do you weep?" is so succinct and compassionate. He doesn't tell her she's wrong or that she should shut up and stop crying. Instead, he gently reveals the redemptive truth that things are better than they seem. Those words were a great comfort to me on one spiritually difficult day in my teens, and they still are.

This is how I imagine Divine Mercy working. We come to God contrite, sorrowful, and He saves and forgives us with great Love. In the past year I've lost sight of that somewhat. I've let discouragement over my job search wear me down, and I've listened to the lying voices that tell me I'll never be good enough, that I have accomplished pathetically little in my 27 years, that God has forsaken me and the people I love. That is not the truth, and I have been slowing waking up to the reality that God's plan is always good, even if it's not my own.

Continuing my novena addiction, I prayed the Divine Mercy novena this past week. On day 4 I got an interview with one of my favorite museums, and on day 9 another company asked to interview me.I don't deserve it, but God has been very merciful, and I feel rich in Faith, Hope and Love.