Today being the feast of St. Mary Magdalene Dr. Marcellinio D’Ambrosio posts a tribute to her by St. Gregory the Great.
When Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and did not find the Lord’s body, she thought it had been taken away and so informed the disciples. After they came and saw the tomb, they too believed what Mary had told them. The text then says: The disciples went back home, and it adds: but Mary wept and remained standing outside the tomb.
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. As David says: My soul has thirsted for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God? And so also in the Song of Songs the Church says: I was wounded by love; and again: My soul is melted with 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 recognised when he calls her “woman”; so he calls her by name, as though he were saying: Recognise me as I recognise you; for I do not know you as I know others; I know you as yourself. And so Mary, once addressed by name, recognises 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.
It is unfortunate and ironic to see dissenters who are disobedient the Christ and his Church hold up St. Mary Magdalene as a role model for them. So many have hijacked her from the likes of the Da Vinci Code to those who support women’s ordination. It is also ironic that St. Mary Magdalene was originally unable to recognize Jesus when he first appeared that modern day admirers of the saint also don’t seem to be able to recognize her. St. Mary Magdalene mistook Jesus for a gardener and moderns do her one better by mistaken St. Mary Magdalene for a radical feminist.
Also on site is an article by Amy Welborns on the Da Vinci Code
2 comments
There’s a childish, ignorant quality to this “hijacking” of Mary Magdalen as there is to almost everything that passes for thought among the self-defined progressives including the term “progressive”, itself. It comes with the baggage of self-righeousness that stands so bravely in the face of utter truths, defying them for a fleeting time of egocentric needs.
Notice that it happens among those people who are often considered well-educated though not overly intelligent and whom, for the most part, have rarely done an honest day’s work in their lives. If they can fabricate themselves then why not anything they choose?
In our Diocese of Fresno, Mary Magdalene and women’s ordination were celebrated on Thurs., July 21 at the bastion of dissent and progressive Catholicism, the St. Paul Newman Center. The annual event is organized by Action Purple Stole, a group linked to Call to Action. We all know their m.o. Hijacked, indeed. Fortunately, it’s a greying gaggle of ancients who participate.