As Jesus was fully man, it was certainly possible for him to experience romantic attraction because romantic attraction is part and parcel of human experience. Scripture tells us that Jesus experienced normal human emotions, such as anger (
John 2:14-17), love (
John 11:5), grief (
John 11:32-35), and joy (
Luke 10:21). He even experienced normal human desires, such as hunger (
Matt. 21:18), thirst (
John 4:7,
19:28), and the desire for rest (
John 4:6). Nevertheless, there are certain things we have to keep in mind:
Rightly-ordered emotions have as their purpose to draw the person to fulfilling a rightly-ordered need or desire. Rightly-ordered romantic attraction has as its purpose to draw a person into marriage. Disordered romantic attraction can draw a person into all kinds of sexual sin. Because Jesus was not only without sin but also without concupiscence (i.e., the inclination toward sin that is a consequence of original sin), he did not suffer disordered romantic attraction. Because Jesus’ mission did not include marriage to a human being – his bride is the Church (
Eph. 5:25-33) – there would have been no purpose for him to feel rightly-ordered romantic attraction toward a woman.
Thus, although we must acknowledge that it is impossible to enter into Christ’s mind and know with certainty what he felt and did not feel, we can state that there would have been no apparent purpose for him to feel romantic attraction toward Mary Magdalene (or any other woman) and so it is likely that he did not.
