On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala 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."
But 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 of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and what he told her.
The Word in other words
Our Indian confrere, Father Ittoop Panikulam, SVD, recently preached a retreat in Tagaytay which helped us appreciate better Mary of Magdala. Mary was the first witness to the risen Lord. She was charged by Jesus to become his first missionary, the first preacher of the resurrection, to the apostles themselves.
To Peter Jesus was very formal: "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" But to Mary of Magdala, Jesus simple said, "Mary". While Jesus's single word "Mary!" suggests a continuation- what had happened had not affected their relationship. All the apostles have deserted Jesus but Mary's love endures. Peter's love for Jesus seems at first to have fragility of that of a fair weather friend, but Mary's love was what Meister Eckhard called fisherman's hook that catches the fish and will not let go.
This love, Father Ittoop suggested, sustained Mary through her anguish between the "absence of the Master and the presence of the living Lord." Jesus found Mary again after his resurrection. Waiting for Christ's return, how can we prepare ourselves so Jesus will find us? How can we become even more living witnesses to the presence of the Risen Lord?
Father Ittoop called Mary and icon of love. Icons, the fruit of much prayer and fasting, are not simply pictures but rather manifestations of the presence of the truth that they convey, and are held generally to be powerful channels of divine grace. Mary's love and the closeness of Jesus to her must therefore show the quality of Jesus' love for us and how much he wants to come to us, and invite us to know and to love Jesus in return. We can know and love Jesus through the Church- through Scripture, the Sacraments, prayer, and of course, each other. A final word from Father Ittoop: "Mary Magdalene's message to us is: 'Be men and women who are on fire with love of Jesus Christ.'"
- Fr. Alan Meechan, SVD (Naujan, Or. Mindoro)
