Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 22, 2023
On the first day of the week,
Mary Magdalene 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.”
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 Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,
“I have seen the Lord,”
and then reported what he told her.
During the spring of my senior year of high school, as college loomed and a global pandemic intensified, I battled tremendous anxiety. I didn’t know what to do or where to turn. One night, I was inspired to pray the rosary for the second time in my life.
I googled “how to pray rosery” on my phone, and my guardian angel and spell check interceded on my behalf to offer coherent search results. Since it was Good Friday, I began to pray and meditate upon the Sorrowful Mysteries.
By God’s grace, I could truly enter into this meditation and place myself, along with Mary, John, and Mary Magdalene, at the foot of the cross. By the end of my prayers, I was moved by Christ’s personal love for each person, including me.
The Lord’s invitation to join him at the cross and trust in his love that night made that Easter morning the sweetest I had yet experienced. My worries remained, but a glimpse of Christ’s love filled me with unspeakable hope and joy.
Mary Magdalene, who accompanied Christ during his passion and knelt by the foot of the cross, went to the tomb on Easter Sunday to anoint his body and sit in her sorrow and uncertainty. She wanted to remain in the tomb.
But the risen Christ called her name and pulled her out of the tomb to share in his joy and proclaim it, and he calls each of us to do the same. Let us cling fast to Christ, and let us, with St. Mary Magdalene, announce the hope of the resurrection to a world that needs it.
Prayer
What will it be like to hear our name spoken by you, Jesus? Given your immeasurable love for us, it has to be an experience totally unlike any other in this world. We remember those special instances in life where the sound of our name made our hearts leap. Those are the moments we will never forget. It literally begins a new phase of life for us, just as it did for Mary. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Mary Magdalene has been called the second-most important woman in the Gospels, after Jesus’ mother, Mary. The Gospels mention her 12 times, more than most of the apostles.
Her name comes from her origin in Magdala, a region in northern Galilee. The Gospels of Mark and Luke tell us that Jesus cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene. After that, she traveled with Jesus and his followers, and played a prominent role in witnessing Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.
She remained at the foot of the cross when most of Jesus’ followers left him, and she is remembered for her courage in faithfully standing with Jesus even as he faced death.
Mary Magdalene is the only person noted by all four Gospels as testifying to Jesus’ resurrection. John and Mark portray her as the first witness of the resurrection, and St. Thomas Aquinas honored her with the title “the Apostle to the Apostles” because she was the first to share the news of the resurrection.
For generations, tradition confused Mary Magdalene with two other women of the Gospel. She is not the same person as Mary of Bethany, who is sister to Martha and Lazarus. She is also not the unnamed woman of Luke’s Gospel (7:36-50), who was uncritically assumed to be a prostitute. Both of these other women anoint Jesus’ feet with oil, which is why Mary Magadalene is mistakenly portrayed with a jar of ointment, as in this stained glass window from the Basilica.
We do know that Mary Magdalene was a pillar of the early Christian community, a faithful follower of Jesus who was healed by him, and one of the first people to witness and share the good news.
Various traditions compete to tell the story of what happened to Mary Magdalene in her later life. One legend has it that she retired to Ephesus with Jesus’ mother, Mary. Another has it that she was transported to France with others and evangelized that area. Relics of St. Mary Magdalene rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and she is depicted in stained glass in the Basilica as well as in a wall mural there.
St. Mary Magdalene, you stood with Jesus at the cross, and were the first witness of the resurrection—pray for us!