Posted on 07/22/2023 2:24:01 PM PDT by MurphsLaw
The Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene
Friends, today we celebrate the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene,
the first witness of Christ’s rising,
who declared the Resurrection to the Apostles.
In point of fact, the Easter declaration, properly understood,
has always been and still is an explosion, an earthquake, a revolution.
For the Easter faith is that Jesus of Nazareth,
who had been brutally put to death by the Roman authorities,
is alive again through the power of the Holy Spirit—
and not in some metaphorical sense.
That the Resurrection is a literary device or a symbol
that Jesus’ cause goes on is a fantasy
born in the faculty lounges of Western universities over the past couple of centuries.
The still startling claim of the first witnesses
is that Jesus rose bodily from death, presenting himself to his disciples to be seen,
even handled.
The hope of ancient Israel
was the unification of heaven and earth in a great marriage.
Recall a central line from the Lord’s Prayer:
“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.”
The bodily Resurrection of Jesus is the powerful sign
that the two orders are in fact coming together.
Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb
and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet
where the Body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her,
"Woman, why are you weeping?"
She said to them,
"They have taken my Lord,
and I don't know where they laid him."
When she had said this,
she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her,
"Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?"
She thought it was the gardener
and said to him,
"Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him."
Jesus said to her, "Mary!"
She turned and said to him in Hebrew,
"Rabbouni," which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her,
"Stop holding on to me,
for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
But go to my brothers and tell them,
'I am going to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.'"
Mary Magdalene went and
announced to the disciples,
"I have seen the Lord,"
and then reported what he told her.+++
St. Mary Magdalen, of Magdala in Galilee, was the sister of St. Martha and St. Lazarus. First a sinner, she was converted by our Lord, Who raised Lazarus at her prayer. She stood at the cross “till our Lord sent forth His spirit.” After His victory, Christ showed Himself to Magdalen and made her His messenger to announce His Resurrection to the Apostles.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Of the earlier life of MARY MAGDALEN we know only that she was “a woman who was a sinner.” From the depth of her degradation she raised her eyes to Jesus with sorrow, hope, and love. All covered with shame, she came In where Jesus was at meat, and knelt behind him. She said not a word, but bathed His feet with her tears, wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed them in humility, and at their touch her sins and her stain were gone. Then she poured on them the costly unguent prepared for far other uses; and His own divine lips rolled away her reproach, spoke her absolution, and bade her go in peace. Thenceforward she ministered to Jesus, sat at His feet, and heard His words. She was one of the family “whom Jesus so loved” that He raised her brother Lazarus from the dead. Once again, on the eve of His Passion, she brought the precious ointment, and, now purified and beloved, poured it on His head, and the whole house of God is still filled with the fragrance of her anointing. She stood with Our Lady and St. John at the foot of the cross, the representative of the many who have had much forgiven. To her first, after His blessed Mother, and through her to His apostles, Our Lord gave the certainty of His resurrection; and to her first He made Himself known, calling her by her name, because she was His. When the faithful were scattered by persecution the family of Bethany found refuge in Provence.
The cave in which St. Mary lived for 30 years is still seen, and the chapel on the mountaintop, in which she was caught up daily, like St. Paul, to “visions and revelations of the Lord.” When her end drew near she was borne to a spot still marked by a “sacred pillar,” where the holy Bishop Maximin awaited her; and when she had received her Lord, she peacefully fell asleep in death.
Reflection—“Compunction of heart,” says St. Bernard, “is a treasure infinitely to be desired, and an unspeakable gladness to the heart. It is healing to the soul; it is remission of sins; it brings back again the Holy Spirit into the humble and loving heart.”
Obviously the good Bishop Barron is not a Catholic Bishop. Catholic tradition tells us that Christ first appeared to his Mother Mary before anyone else. After all, would not the Perfect Son first appear to console His mother, or do we argue that Christ was not the Perfect Son?
Remember that it is written:
“Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”
We read in Matthew, Mark and John-
it was indeed Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb- and saw Christ first.
Now it would be a nice sentiment to espouse this "tradition" you have heard...
But the hypothetical you propose would have certainly been recorded
in like manner in the Gospels-
and not left out of the Resurrection narrative as you suggest.
After all that is the Sacred Liturgy we read
celebrating in the Catholic Mass.
Mary, the Mother of God, is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible between Jesus’ death and Pentecost. So any traditions about the Pieta, the Resurrection, and the Ascension which reflect the Virgin Mother are not biblically based. Thus, all are subject to speculation.
Does that mean she was absent?
As I point out from the Gospel of John, even the Disciple Whom Jesus Loved admits to not writing the whole story. Why do we argue that it must be Mary Magdalene who saw Jesus first? Why do we presume that any such meeting had to take place at the tomb? Could not Jesus have appeared first to His mother regardless of where she was? Are we limiting the Son of God to a three dimensional view of man?
Reason is a key part of Catholic tradition, and that is why Catholic tradition has come to accept the science of the order of the universe. Otherwise, we would still be arguing that the earth is flat, and the heavens revolve around us which is the biblically-based view. It may take years to make a change, but Catholic doctrine can evolve over a few hundred years. The question is whether it stands the test of time.
The Church has never officially taught
whether Jesus appeared to his mother first or at all.
Your reasoning of "just because its not written"
as a hypothetical validation brings into the equation cascading hypotheticals
which is why caution is necessary for anything outside of scripture.
If Christ appeared to The Blessed Virgin first...
Why would she have not told the Apostles and others?
They were going to anoint the body-
with the hope that someone help them remove the stone.
Did Jesus tell her to keep it a secret?
That seems as illogical as it would be that the Gospel writers forgot to mention the Virgin Mary
in this momentous occasion.
Why? So that the Gospel stories could have that big surprise run to the tomb on Easter morning?
And there are more questions about how this visitstion could have happened. Its a great sentiment for to want Jesus to greet his Mother first,
but details cant be supported beyond the sentiment.
And... lets not forget from the Cross, in his last dying breaths
"Woman behold YOUR Son, Behold YOUR Mother"
FRLtom the Cross- Christ changed the relationship he would have witb his Earthly Mother.
Really though, all the speculation about the Easter morning tomb
doesnt change a whole lot- beyond what sacred scrioture teaches.
I think the bigger question is, “Why is Mary missing from scripture between the time of Jesus’s death until Pentecost?”
I also think the answer to that is to keep the spotlight on Jesus rather than His mother. Obviously, St. John would know since The Lord commended His mother to John’s care. So why didn’t John tell us what Mary was doing or how she was handling this entire chain of events?
John, himself, went to the tomb. Where did he leave Mary when he went? And why wasn’t Mary also preparing for embalming the body?
I agree that it’s all speculation, but I also recognize that the biblical accounts are not written like historical documents with exacting timelines. If Mary, like the others, had believed Jesus was in the tomb, she would have gone with them to see … unless she already knew He wasn’t there.
So to finish, in reply to you, I just didn't think it is a prudent method to question -
or even deny - the Catholicity of anyone- let alone this Bishop
who has brought so many souls to Christ through the Church.
And yet, even still,
it does not remove your right to have that feeling- or opinion - just the same.
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