MARY MAGDALENE

Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time

 July 22, Thursday

MARY MAGDALENE

Introduction

Contrary to popular belief, which is based on a rather late “tradition” in the West only, Mary Magdalene is not the sinful woman described in Luke 7. We know that she was from Magdala and had been cured by the Lord. She became an eager and loving witness to the Lord’s resurrection.

Opening Prayer

Lord our God,
Mary Magdalene sought your Son
with the impetuosity of a person
who loved him deeply
and who was afraid to have lost him.
When she had recognized him,
he made her a witness to his resurrection.
Lord God, help us discover
the presence of your Son
in the people around us
and may they recognize
that Jesus Christ lives in us
now and for ever.

Reading 1: SGS 3:1-4B

The Bride says:
On my bed at night I sought him
whom my heart loves–
I sought him but I did not find him.
I will rise then and go about the city;
in the streets and crossings I will seek
Him whom my heart loves.
I sought him but I did not find him.
The watchmen came upon me,
as they made their rounds of the city:
Have you seen him whom my heart loves?
I had hardly left them
when I found him whom my heart loves.

OR:  2 COR 5:14-17

Brothers and sisters:
The love of Christ impels us,
once we have come to the conviction that one died for all;
therefore, all have died.
He indeed died for all,
so that those who live might no longer live for themselves
but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh;
even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh,
yet now we know him so no longer.
So whoever is in Christ is a new creation:
the old things have passed away;
behold, new things have come.

Responsorial Psalm: PS 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9

(2) My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
O God, you are my God whom I seek;
for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts
like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary
to see your power and your glory,
For your kindness is a greater good than life;
my lips shall glorify you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus will I bless you while I live;
lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name.
As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied,
and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
You are my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.
My soul clings fast to you;
your right hand upholds me.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.

Alleluia

Alleluia, alleluia.
Tell us Mary, what did you see on the way?
I saw the glory of the risen Christ, I saw his empty tomb.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Jn 20:1-2, 11-18

On the first day of the week,
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
"They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don't know where they put him."

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.

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord our God,
in these signs of bread and wine
your Son becomes present among us.
Give us the firm conviction
that he is alive among us and in us,
that people may recognize
that it is he who makes our lives meaningful
and worth living.
We ask you this through Christ, our Lord.

Prayer after Communion

Our God and Father,
we thank you for this eucharistic celebration.
We have shared the table of your Son;
we share his life and love.
God, may we also bear witness
that your Son is risen and alive today.
May our lives reflect the love and joy
that he brought us,
until we enter the joy of your kingdom.
This is what we ask of you today
through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Commentary

Apostle of the Apostles

Today the Church celebrates the feast of the first witness to the Risen Lord – St. Mary Magdalene. She is most remembered for her Easter testimony. She is the only woman disciple of Jesus named by all the four evangelists. Being present at the crucifixion, and at the empty tomb, she was an eyewitness to the ministry, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. And she became the first messenger of the resurrection to the other apostles – which earned her the title “Apostle of the Apostles”

In the gospel of John, the first words out of Jesus’ mouth are a question: “What are you looking for?” Essentially everything that Jesus does and teaches in the rest of John’s gospel gives an answer to that question: We are looking for the way, the truth, the life, living water to quench our thirst, bread from heaven to satiate our hunger. But those answers are partially abstract. At the end of the gospel, we have this question repeated and there is the answer:
On Easter Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene goes out to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. She, but finds him in a garden (the typical place where lovers meet). But she doesn’t recognize him. Jesus turns to her and, repeating the question with which the gospel began, asks her: “What are you looking for?” Mary replies that she is looking for the body of the dead Jesus and could he give her any information as to where that body is. And Jesus simply says: “Mary”. He pronounces her name in love. She falls at his feet
In essence, that is the whole gospel: What are we ultimately looking for? What is the end of all desires? What drives us out into gardens to search for love? The desire to hear God pronounce our names in love. To hear God lovingly saying our name: Jose!

The following is a poem by renowned theologian Fr. Ron Rolheiser about the encounter of Mary Magdalene and Jesus in the garden.

I never suspected
Resurrection to be so painful... to leave me weeping
With joy to have met you, alive and smiling, outside an empty tomb
With regret, not because I've lost you but because I've lost you in how I had you -- in understandable, touchable, kissable, clingable flesh not as fully Lord, but as graspably human.

I want to cling, despite your protest cling to your body cling to your, and my, clingable humanity cling to what we had, our past.
But I know that...if I cling, you cannot ascend and
I will be left clinging to your former self ...unable to receive your present spirit.

[Fr Ronald Rolheiser, Mary Magdala's Easter Prayer in Forgotten Among the Lillies, p176.]