St. Mary Magdalen - Mary of MAGDALA.
Mary Magdalen was so called either from Magdala near Tiberias, on the west shore of Galilee, or possibly from a Talmudic expression meaning "curling women's hair," which the Talmud explains as of an adulteress.
The Greek Fathers, as a whole, distinguish the three persons:
- the "sinner" of Luke 7:36-50;
- the sister of Martha and Lazarus, Luke 10:38-42 and John 11; and
- Mary Magdalen.
On the other hand most of the Latins hold that these three were one and the same. Most critics, however, believe there were two, if not three, distinct persons. It is impossible to demonstrate the identity of the three. Or was it just one person, who had three distinct personalities? In todays world she would have been looked at as someone ill, with a Multiple personality disorder. The Jewish society too didn't help, women had no rights, and were treated more like possessions or commodities. Their views, opinions or independence were not respected in society. Mary is different, she challenges the Jewish society, rebels against its age old customs and traditions, and pays a heavy price for it.
The price was huge, the ransom great, no one could bail her out. Not even her brother Lazarus, or the many men she trusted her life with. Thus guilty of capital punishment, when brought to Jesus, the High Priest, the Just Judge, the one who knows all things, sees all things, from the time of her conception, she is finally given a fair hearing.
A judgement is passed, Christ is found writing on the earth, when questioned by her accusers, ready with stones in their hand to kill her. Guilty, Yes, Criminal Yes, Under the Jewish law we find her both guilty and worthy of being called a Criminal, but when Jesus Christ, King of the Jews declares the Final Judgement, everyone is suprised. Jesus passes Judgement as the Just Judge, and finds all mankind guilty of sin, For All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.
Its only when we stop looking at the speck in the other persons eye, can we see how truly blind we actually are. Its only then we realise our vision is so skewed, so warped that its obscured not by a splinter but a LOG in our ?eye. Judge not and you shall not be Judged! Make peace, with Jesus Christ the Just Judge before the second comming, the final Day of Judgement, while he currently reigns as King of Mercy, Price of Peace.
He did say He has come to cast fire on the earth, a fire that consumes not only the body, but the mind and the soul, and How he wished 2020 years ago that it were already burning. He did mention he will set son against father, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, but yet he is also called One God, with a fractured Church.
How do we reconcile this disunity with Christ constant call to Unity? Christ established just one Church, which today is fractured into infinite denominations. Which is the church that Christ truly founded? Is it the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Protestant Churches or is the various Churches that mushroom everywhere, professing Christ Yes, preaching the Gospel Yes, however, they Profess with their lips but their hearts are far from it. Are we guilty of preaching a Gospel that we don't follow first?
St. Francis rightly said, "Preach the Gospel always, if necessary use words". So let your lives be a living sacrifice, a pleasing odour to God. And may Christ, be preached, professed and lived in your lives first. Let us be the Branch that bears much fruit as it abides in Jesus, the real vine. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you you will bear much fruit. Is your church thriving, struggling or flourishing? The litmus test is the Fruit of the Spirit. Many are the gifts and few are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Many have the gifts, few have the Fruit. If your ministry or church only has the gift and flowers but no fruit, like the Fig tree that was cursed, it will wither and die as its not rooted in the Gospel that Jesus Christ Preached.
One bread, One Body, One Church, One Gospel: Which is that Church, which is that Gospel?
Which is the Gospel that Jesus Preached 2020 years ago? Sadly, we didn't have the todays technology back then, and the old technology that did capture it, is terribly out dated, unreliable and unbelievable. The Warranty has expired long ago and most of human kind has lost faith. Today we have so many versions of the Gosple being preached, as for me i'd like to go back to the roots and research for myself, and find the writings of the early church fathers, who gave up their lives that the TRUTH be preserved.
Can we look for the truth and yet not find it? Yes, Jesus bore witness to the TRUTH, but that truth was rejected buy the whole world. We all are guilty of SIN, I nailed Jesus to the Cross of Calvary, if not me then who?
I am guilty of sin, Yes I am also redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. I am made whiter than snow, but every white cloth attracts dirt in a dirty dusty world. WE have to be cleaned and bleached frequently. Once saved, forever saved. Yes. Work out your salvation with FEAR & TREMBLING. Do not throw away the BAPTISIMAL GIFT of ETERNAL LIFE. Every Sin deserves death and punishment, Jesus Christ, destroyed Death once and for all, so all BAPTISED are saved. However there is a Just Judgement coming, are we prepared for it?
Have you been to Jesus for the Cleansing rite?
Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless are they white as snow, are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb.
Are you washed, in the soul cleansing blood of the lamb, even if your garments were spotless and bleached white, are they still white? Are they washed free of MORTAL SIN? The small weak stains don't need bleaching, VENIAL SIN is easily forgiven, STUBBORN SINS need bleaching, Even if there is ONE STUBBORN STAIN on your garment, its not white all over.
Please work out your salvation with FEAR & TREMBLING, do not take your GIFT of eternal LIFE for granted. Confess your sins to all, and come clean, before your ACCUSER drags you to COURT! Please push for an OUT OF COURT SETTLEMENT, strive hard for PEACE, while JESUS REIGNS as CHRIST THE KING, the King of MERCY, the PRINCE OF PEACE!
Do not drag anyone to court with HARD EVIDENCE, least they raise their cry to JESUS CHRIST the JUST JUDGE, who will hear their cry and find all GUILTY. Let us back off, and stop accusing the guilty, the victims in society. Let us build a society of JUSTICE & PEACE.
Magdalene, A sinner, a woman possessed with 7 demons
In the New Testament she is mentioned among the women who accompanied Christ and ministered to Him (Luke 8:2-3), where it is also said that seven devils had been cast out of her (Mark 16:9).
It is the identification of Mary of Bethany with the "sinner" of Luke 7:37, which is most combatted contested. It almost seems as if this reluctance to identify the "sinner" with the sister of Martha were due to a failure to grasp the full significance of the forgiveness of sin.
The first fact, mentioned in the Gospel relating to the question under discussion is the anointing of Christ's feet by a woman, a "sinner" in the city (Luke 7:37-50). This belongs to the Galilean ministry, it precedes the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand and the third Passover. Immediately afterwards St. Luke describes a missionary circuit in Galilee and tells us of the women who ministered to Christ, among them being "Mary who is called Magdalen, out of whom seven devils were gone forth" (Luke 8:2); but he does not tell us that she is to be identified with the "sinner" of the previous chapter.
In 10:38-42, Luke tells us of Christ's visit to Martha and Mary "in a certain town"; it is impossible to identify this town, but it is clear from 9:53, that Christ had definitively left Galilee, and it is quite possible that this "town" was Bethany. This seems confirmed by the preceding parable of the good Samaritan, which must almost certainly have been spoken on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem. But here again we note that there is no suggestion of an identification of the three persons (the "sinner", Mary Magdalen, and Mary of Bethany), and if we had only St. Luke to guide us we should certainly have no grounds for so identifying them.
St. John, however, clearly identifies Mary of Bethany with the woman who anointed Christ's feet (12; cf. Matthew 26 and Mark 14). It is remarkable that already in 11:2, St. John has spoken of Mary as "she that anointed the Lord's feet", he aleipsasa; It is commonly said that he refers to the subsequent anointing which he himself describes in 12:3-8; but it may be questioned whether he would have used he aleipsasa if another woman, and she a "sinner" in the city, had done the same. It is conceivable that St. John, just because he is writing so long after the event and at a time when Mary was dead, wishes to point out to us that she was really the same as the "sinner."
In the same way St. Luke may have veiled her identity precisely because he did not wish to defame one who was yet living; he certainly does something similar in the case of St. Matthew whose identity with Levi the publican (5:7) he conceals.
If the foregoing argument holds good, Mary of Bethany and the "sinner" are one and the same. But an examination of St. John's Gospel makes it almost impossible to deny the identity of Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalen. From St. John we learn the name of the "woman" who anointed Christ's feet previous to the last supper. We may remark here that it seems unnecessary to hold that because St. Matthew and St. Mark say "two days before the Passover", while St. John says "six days" there were, therefore, two distinct annointings following one another.
St. John does not necessarily mean that the supper and the anointing took place six days before, but only that Christ came to Bethany six days before the Passover. At that supper, then, Mary received the glorious encomium, "she hath wrought a good work upon Me . . . in pouring this ointment upon My body she hath done it for My burial . . . wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached . . . that also which she hath done shall be told for a memory of her."
Magdalene, A new confident, independent, woman with a Mind of her own.
She is next named as standing at the foot of the cross (Mark 15:40; Matthew 27:56; John 19:25; Luke 23:49). She saw Christ laid in the tomb, and she was the first recorded witness of the Resurrection.
Is it credible, in view of all this, that this Mary should have no place at the foot of the cross, nor at the tomb of Christ? Yet it is Mary Magdalen who, according to all the Evangelists, stood at the foot of the cross and assisted at the entombment and was the first recorded witness of the Resurrection. And while St. John calls her "Mary Magdalen" in 19:25, 20:1, and 20:18, he calls her simply "Mary" in 20:11 and 20:16.
In the view we have advocated the series of events forms a consistent whole; the "sinner" comes early in the ministry to seek for pardon; she is described immediately afterwards as Mary Magdalen "out of whom seven devils were gone forth"; shortly after, we find her "sitting at the Lord's feet and hearing His words." To the Catholic mind it all seems fitting and natural. At a later period Mary and Martha turn to "the Christ, the Son of the Living God", and He restores to them their brother Lazarus; a short time afterwards they make Him a supper and Mary once more repeats the act she had performed when a penitent. At the Passion she stands near by; she sees Him laid in the tomb; and she is the first witness of His Resurrection--excepting always His Mother, to whom He must needs have appeared first, though the New Testament is silent on this point. In our view, then, there were two anointings of Christ's feet--it should surely be no difficulty that St. Matthew and St. Mark speak of His head--the first (Luke 7) took place at a comparatively early date; the second, two days before the last Passover. But it was one and the same woman who performed this pious act on each occasion.
Subsequent history of St. Mary Magdalene
The Greek Church maintains that the saint retired to Ephesus with the Blessed Virgin and there died, that her relics were transferred to Constantinople in 886 and are there preserved. Gregory of Tours (De miraculis, I, xxx) supports the statement that she went to Ephesus. However, according to a French tradition (see SAINT LAZARUS OF BETHANY), Mary, Lazarus, and some companions came to Marseilles and converted the whole of Provence. Magdalen is said to have retired to a hill, La Sainte-Baume, near by, where she gave herself up to a life of penance for thirty years. When the time of her death arrived she was carried by angels to Aix and into the oratory of St. Maximinus, where she received the viaticum; her body was then laid in an oratory constructed by St. Maximinus at Villa Lata, afterwards called St. Maximin. History is silent about these relics till 745, when according to the chronicler Sigebert, they were removed to Vézelay through fear of the Saracens. No record is preserved of their return, but in 1279, when Charles II, King of Naples, erected a convent at La Sainte-Baume for the Dominicans, the shrine was found intact, with an inscription stating why they were hidden. In 1600 the relics were placed in a sarcophagus sent by Clement VIII, the head being placed in a separate vessel. In 1814 the church of La Sainte-Baume, wrecked during the Revolution, was restored, and in 1822 the grotto was consecrated afresh. The head of the saint now lies there, where it has lain so long, and where it has been the centre of so many pilgrimages.
No comments:
Post a Comment