Mary Magdalene at the Tomb

Rembrandt van Rijn. ‘Christ and Mary Magdalene’. Oil on wood, 1638, The Royal Collection, London.

Today’s Gospel is the account of the risen Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb (John 20: 1-18), a passage which raises many questions for us. Why did she arrive first at the tomb, then, after telling the others who came to see, remain alone seeking Jesus when the others had left? Why did she not recognize the Lord when he first appeared? Why would he not let her touch him before he had ascended to the Father? Some thoughts from St. Gregory the Great (540-604) and St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153) can help us to find some answers to these questions. The quotations from St. Gregory are taken from the text given for today’s Office of Readings as found on the website http://www.universalis.com, and those from St. Bernard from http://www.evangeliumtagfuertag.org. Two fine sites, by the way, where you can find a wealth of scriptural, liturgical and patristic texts for every day of the year. 

From St. Gregory, then: ‘We should reflect on Mary’s attitude and the great love she felt for Christ; for though the disciples had left the tomb, she remained. She was still seeking the one she had not found, and while she sought she wept; burning with the fire of love, she longed for him who she thought had been taken away. And so it happened that the woman who stayed behind to seek Christ was the only one to see him. For perseverance is essential to any good deed, as the voice of truth tells us: “Whoever perseveres to the end will be saved.”

‘At first she sought but did not find, but when she persevered it happened that she found what she was looking for. When our desires are not satisfied, they grow stronger, and becoming stronger they take hold of their object. Holy desires likewise grow with anticipation, and if they do not grow they are not really desires. Anyone who succeeds in attaining the truth has burned with such a great love.

‘”Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” She is asked why she is sorrowing so that her desire might be strengthened; for when she mentions whom she is seeking, her love is kindled all the more ardently. 

‘Jesus says to her: “Mary!” Jesus is not recognized when he calls her “woman”; so he calls her by name, as though he were saying: ‘Recognize me as I recognize you, for I do not know you as I know others. I know you as yourself.” And so Mary, once addressed by name, recognizes the one who is speaking. She immediately calls him “rabboni”, that is to say, “teacher”, because the one whom she sought outwardly was the one who inwardly taught her to keep on searching.’ 

And from St. Bernard: ‘Only the hearing that catches the word possesses the truth…”Do not touch me,” says the Lord. He meant: depend no longer on this fallible sense; put your trust in the word, get used to faith. Faith cannot be deceived. With the power to understand invisible truth, faith does not know the poverty of the senses; it transcends even the limits of human reason, the capacity of nature, the bounds of experience. Why do you ask the eye to do what it is not equipped to do? And why does the hand endeavor to examine things beyond its reach? What you may learn from these senses is of limited value. But faith will tell you of me without detracting from my greatness. Learn to receive with greater confidence, to follow with greater security, whatever faith commends to you. 

‘”Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.” As if after he had ascended he wished to be or could be touched by her! And yet he could be touched, but by the heart, not by the hand; by desire, not by the eye; by faith, not by the senses. “Why do you want to touch me now?” he says…”Do you not remember that, while I was still mortal, the eyes of the disciples could not endure for a short space the glory of my transfigured body that was destined to die? I still accommodate myself to your senses by bearing this form of a servant (Phil. 2, 7) which you are accustomed to seeing. But this glory of mine is too wonderful for you…Defer your judgment therefore…With its fuller comprehension, faith will define it more worthily and more surely…She therefore will touch me worthily who will accept me as seated with the Father (Mk. 16, 19; Ps. 110 [109], 1), no longer in lowly guise, but in my own flesh transformed with heaven’s beauty. Why wish to touch what is ugly? Have patience that you may touch me in my beauty.”‘ 

What I would add to all this, following the line of thought seen in St. Gregory, is that Mary Magdalene is also not allowed to touch the risen Lord because her desire is not yet strong enough–to seek him with true diligence, that is, so that she might find him, as the risen glorified Savior, to echo St. Bernard of Clairvaux. It seems that in this entire series of events Mary is continually being led, first by her own imperfect longing, then by the appearances and questions of the angels and the Lord, to desire Christ more forcefully, to seek him more ardently, so that she can ultimately find him as he is and rejoice with perfect joy. All of which holds lessons for the rest of us as well. Is my desire to seek and find the risen Lord sufficient? Do I persevere daily in my search? And where do I seek him? Only outside myself, or within as well, in the depths of my soul, and in the actions of his grace which take place within the context of his mystical Body which is the Church? 

The Sabbath Rest

Monastery of St. Macarius the Great, at Scetis (Wadi Natrun), Egypt. A Coptic Orthodox monastery founded in 360 A.D. by St. Macarius, whose relics are there. It has been continuously occupied since its founding. You can read more about this monastery at its official English website: http://www.stmacariusmonastery.org/eabout.htm.

Here is a short commentary by St. Macarius on today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 12: 1-8). St. Macarius, a disciple of St. Anthony the Great, was one of the most influential of the early Desert Fathers of Egypt. He lived between ca. 300 and 391 A.D. and is sometimes known as ‘The Lamp of the Desert’. As the photo of the monastery named after him and reproduced at the bottom of this post shows, there is much new construction taking place today in addition to continued archaeological research into and restoration of the site. 

                                             The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath 

‘In the Law given by Moses… God commanded everyone to rest and do no work on the sabbath day. But this was “a copy and shadow” (Heb 8,5) of the true sabbath, bestowed on the soul by our Lord. For indeed, the soul deemed worthy of the true sabbath no longer gives itself up to shameful, demeaning preoccupations and remains in them, but it celebrates the true sabbath and enjoys true repose because it has been set free from every work of darkness…

‘In former times it was decreed that even irrational animals were to rest on the sabbath day: the ox was not to be placed under the yoke nor the ass to bear its burden, for the animals themselves rested from their hard labor. By his coming to us and giving us the true and eternal sabbath, our Lord brought rest to the soul laden and burdened by the weight of sin which, subjected as it was to cruel masters, was constrained to carry out deeds of unrighteousness. He relieved it of the insupportable weight of vain and unworthy thoughts; he freed it from the bitter yoke of unrighteous deeds; and he granted it rest.

‘For indeed, the Lord is calling us to rest when he says to us: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11,28). Now every soul that places its trust in him and comes to him… celebrates a true sabbath, delightful and holy, a feast of the Spirit, in inexpressible joy and happiness. It offers God a pure worship, pleasing to him, from a pure heart. This is the true and holy sabbath.’

               

 

The Good Samaritan

‘The Good Samaritan’. Contemporary Coptic Icon. Private Collection.

Here is a short commentary on today’s Gospel passage (Luke 10: 25-37) by St. Ambrose, 4th century Archbishop of Milan. 

                                                            The Good Samaritan

‘”A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho”… Jericho is the symbol of this world where, after he had been cast out of Paradise, that is to say the heavenly Jerusalem, Adam went down… It was his change of behavior, not of place, that made his exile. And what a change! This man Adam, who enjoyed undisturbed happiness, had no sooner lowered himself to this world’s sins than he encountered some brigands… Now who are these brigands if not the angels of night and darkness who, on occasion, disguise themselves as angels of light (2Cor 11,15) but are unable to remain thus? They start by stripping us of the garments of spiritual grace we have received: this is how they usually behave so as to cause us harm… Take great care, then, not to let yourself be stripped, like Adam, deprived of the protection of God’s commandments and lacking the garment of faith. This is why he received the mortal wound to which the whole human race would have succumbed if the Samaritan had not come down to cure his frightful wound.

‘This is not just any Samaritan: this one did not disdain the man whom the priest and the Levite disdained… This Samaritan came down. “Who has come down from heaven except the one who has gone up to heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven?” (cf Jn 3,13). Seeing that man half dead whom no one before him had been able to heal… he came up beside him. That is to say, by consenting to suffer with us he became our fellow and by showing us mercy he became our neighbor.’