MARY MAGDALENE, THE "APOSTLE OF THE APOSTLES", FROM A MORNING MEDITATION FOR THE DISCALCED CARMELITES

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Tender remains for ever the question of Mary Magdalene, that frightened before the empty tomb pained groans: "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we know not where they have laid!». E, said this, shortly after she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, behind his back; but his reason did not know that it was Jesus; But it was the same reason that led her at once to make the leap of faith before the heavenly light of the Risen Body, she knew from her voice that spoke her name: «Maria!».

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Meditation on the figure of Mary Magdalene offered to the Discalced Carmelite nuns this morning.

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In today's party the universal Church celebrates liturgical memory of Santa Maria Maddalena, an extraordinary female figure in the Christological experience that reminds us of the Blessed Apostle Paul who, addressing to the people of Corinth, clarifies in a few short words the foundation of our faith:

"If Christ had not risen indeed, in vain would be our faith and our hope in vain " (The Cor, 15).

Before the empty tomb of the risen Christ, the link between reason and faith, more than narrow, it is inseparable. Because with reason we arrive at the overturned stone of the tomb of Christ God, with faith we enter the eternal mystery of the Risen One.

On the words of the Apostle Paul Blessed, which in the resurrection of Christ shows us the mystery of mysteries on which our faith can stand or die, is a rational demand: but what is faith? And do not use some coincidence that the word "rational", because the relationship between ratio e fides, reason and faith, it is highlighted by three Holy Fathers and doctors of the Church who constitute the pillars of theological speculation: Saint Augustine, bishop of Hippo, St. Anselm of Aosta first Abbot of Le Bec and then Archbishop of Canterbury, San Tommaso Aquino.

The dogmatic constitution of Vatican II, God's word, takes up the text of the constitution almost verbatim the son of God the First Vatican Council, reiterating in a line of continuity with the previous magisterium and with the Council of Trent the «Relationship between faith and reason» expressed with these words:

"The same Holy Mother Church professes and teaches that God, beginning and end of all things, It can be known with certainty to the natural light of human reason through created things; indeed, the invisible things of Him are known by the intelligence of the human being through the things that were done (cf. RM 1,20) [1]».

A distance of approximately a century from Vatican I, following the teaching of Aquinas, the Holy Pontiff John Paul II gave us his encyclical on faith and reason, the Faith and Reason.

The big question "What is faith", that in us resonates with the divine gift of reason, the Author of the Letter to the Hebrews provides an answer by saying:

«faith is the certainty of things hoped for and demonstration of realities that are not seen» (EB 11, 1).

To open up to faith, which it is both "certainty" and "hope", you need to project ourselves in a dimension of eternity, because the source of faith is the Lord.

The Servant of God Anastasio Ballastrero he used to say that «The present life is a space of bliss to the extent that eternity is rooted in it».

This story of the resurrection of Christ, with which concludes the entire Gospel of John the Apostle Blessed, is placed in the Eternal as an open door on the way toἔσχατον, the glorious day when Christ will return in glory to judge the living and the dead. And all this is a challenge to human reason to induce the man to the big step of faith.

Blessed Evangelist continues to narrate that while the two disciples returning home, Mary remained crying outside the tomb:

«The first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb in the morning, when it was still dark, and he saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. He then ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, what Jesus loved, and told them: “They took the Lord away from the tomb and we don't know where they placed him!”. Maria was outside, the tomb, and crying. she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white, sitting, the one at the head and one at the feet, where it had laid the body of Jesus. And they told her: “Donna, why are you crying?” He answered them: "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid". Said this, She turned around and saw Jesus, standing; and he knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus told her: «Donna, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?». Her, thinking it was the gardener, he told him: “man, if you have carried him away, tell me where you put it and I'll go get it”. Jesus told her: “Maria!”. She turned and said to him in Hebrew: “Rabbuni!”, what does it mean: “Maestro!”. Jesus told her: “Don't hold me back, because I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and tell them: "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, My God and your God". Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples: “I saw the Lord!” and what he had told her (GV 20,1-2 e 11-18).

During the sacred rites of the Passover of resurrection we sing an ancient sequence of rare beauty the Gregorian, of which a verse reads: Mors et vita conflixere duel aiming ... (death and life will face in a tremendous duel). And from this duel is something out defeat death, because the resurrection of Christ is an explosion of vital love without beginning and without end that takes us back to the eternal dimension of our existence in the ancient original Garden of Eden, because with Christ we are dead to sin and with Him we are all resurrected. For as we have all been involved in the sin of Adam, we have all been involved and made sharers in Christ's redemptive resurrection.

Death touches us more painfully, especially when it deprives us of precious suffering, He proves this Mary Magdalene with her tender lamentation. But however painful, death does not affect us forever, It takes us to a moment of passage to eternity, as we proclaim in our profession of faith:

"... I believe in the resurrection of the dead and in the life of the world to come".

It's still, so different but similar, we proclaim it during the Holy Mass on the Most Holy Eucharistic Species of Christ present alive and true with His body, His blood His soul and His divinity, cheering:

"We announce your death, Lord, We proclaim your resurrection until you come again ".

To understand what he was trying Maddalena in his heart at that moment, there might be help St. John of the Cross, that like all true mystics lived with his feet on the ground balances, because it is the earthly Jerusalem that we are called to project ourselves into the eternal heavenly Jerusalem. Referring to the Blessed Apostle Paul (cf.. RM 14, 3) he exhorts:

"Those who act according to reason is like one who eats nutritious foods; those who moves behind the taste of the will is like one who eats rotten fruit '[2].

Because of this, just 49 year old, now in its fullness in Christ after flying on "two wings"[3] of faith and reason, St. John of the Cross received death lowered into the spiritual coherence that a few years ago led him to write in his famous poem "Break the canvas now in the sweet encounter"[4]. And what he portrayed as a 'canvas', it was the mystical-poetic representation of the last tear through which, through the overturned stone of the empty tomb of the Risen, leads to the contemplation of the Divine Victorious Lamb who triumphs over death and that through the mystery of his resurrection involves us in eternity; and who is able to enjoy the eternal, He says together with the Blessed Apostle Paul: "For me, living is Christ and dying is a gain" (I Phil 1, 21).

Tender remains for ever the question of Mary Magdalene, that frightened before the empty tomb pained groans:

"They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we know not where they have laid!».

E, said this, shortly after she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, behind his back; but his reason did not know that it was Jesus; But it was the same reason that led her at once to make the leap of faith before the heavenly light of the Risen Body, she knew from her voice that spoke her name: «Maria!».

If we avert our fearful look the upturned stone of our empty tombs, We find out what the Lord's love goes beyond death, enough that we turn back; and day by day we will discover that 'Alpha and l 'Omega, the Word of God, It is behind us, to call us by name, because we are all in the divine heart of the great mystery of the Father, who wanted us, loved and called by name before the beginning of time.

Mary Magdalene is a woman who seeks the beloved of his heart, and to her church, in this Liturgy of the Word, He directs the words of the Book of Song of Songs in which it is revealed God's love for man and man for his God:

«… I tried my soul loves […] I found the love of my soul ".

Between the second and third century St. Hippolytus of Rome[5] It defines "the Apostle of the Apostles". She is in fact the first to see the risen Christ, according to the story of Blessed John the Evangelist. And after recognizing it she ran to tell it to the eleven Apostles, hidden and shocked by what they had seen a few days before on Golgotha. And from this episode it understands what is venerable figure of Maddalena, sent by Christ to proclaim his resurrection to those fearful that a few days before, during l'Last Supper, He had established priests of the New Covenant; the same people who a few days earlier, as recounted a dramatic passage from the Gospel: «And all the disciples, forsook him, fled» (cf.. Mt 26, 56). And the first of the Apostles, covered by Christ God for a vicarious function and he defined as uplifting rock of his Church (cf.. Mt 16, 13-20), before the stunning scenery of the capture and condemnation of the Divine Master, he didn't say, as he said on Mount Athos during the transfiguration of Christ "we stay here ...", Indeed, "let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah " (cf.. MC 9, 2-8). After Christ had sweated blood in the Garden shortly after going to meet his painful passion, Peter denied him three times. And even the abandonment of God by his apostles and priests, it's part, of always, the mystery of the Church; it's part, of always, of the mystery of faith. To take it up our cross and follow him (cf.. MC 8, 27-35), not enough reason alone, because it needs to be done through reason the leap of faith. Only in this way will we be able to recognize the Risen One who calls us by name from behind, because all, we are called to be Mary. E, like Mary, be heralds of his Resurrection.

the Island of Patmos, 22 July 2024

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NOTE

[1] First Vatican Council: Denz. -beautiful, 3004; cf 3026

[2] St. John of the Cross, it gives The soul in love prayers, n. 43.

[3] CF. Saint John Paul II, Faith and Reason, introductory preamble.

[4] St. John of the Cross, it gives O flame of love alive.

[5] Hippolytus Roman [170-235 D.C.], theologian and priest. It was the first anti-pope in Church history, He died reconciled with the legitimate Pope Pontian, together with whom he died in Sardinia after being convicted to the metals (to forced labor) by Maximinus the Thracian.

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