Word to the Wise
Monday, July 22, 2013 - July 22 - St. Mary Magdalene
[Cant 3:1-4b or 2 Cor 5:14-17 and John 20:1-2, 11-18]Jesus said.....[G]o to my brothers and tell them, "I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." Mary Magdalen went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord" and then reported what he told her.
The church celebrates Mary Magdalen as the "apostle to the apostles!" She was sent by Jesus to announced the good news! In the Gospel of John, that makes her the first preacher! So, we Dominicans have accepted her as a special patroness since we are the Order of Preachers! One wonders why her feast day doesn't have a higher status in the Roman or Dominican calendars!
The scene at the tomb, like so many in the Gospel of John, develops in stages as Mary moves from simply seeing the empty tomb to mistaking Jesus for the gardener to recognizing Jesus as the Risen Lord, to preaching the news of his resurrection. One might go to the Gospel of Luke and read the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24) for a comparison. Since the Gospel of John was composed later than the other three, it is clear that the story serves more than the scene itself It is a story of a journey of faith and discipleship. She and the apostles and WE are called not simply to announce an empty tomb but a Risen Lord. As Thomas would later say, he is our Lord and our God.
The women of the Dominican Order celebrate this feast with some poignance because of the current church restrictions on their participation in the principal charism of our Order - Preaching! Perhaps we can ask Mary Magdalen to work on getting that changed before too long, and also to help us all proclaim the Risen Lord as we have been commissioned to do by our baptism! AMEN