Abraham was one person who hoped against hope (Rom 4:18) and for this reason we respect him as the father of our faith. Centuries later Virgin Mary also hoped against hope. She believed that she will conceive with the power of the Holy Spirit, and give birth to Jesus the Saviour, the Son of God. Her ‘fiat’ was an expression of a much greater faith than Abraham’s faith. She is rightly called the Morning Star who heralds the coming of the Sun of Righteousness at a time when ‘darkness covered the earth and thick darkness the peoples’ (Isa 60:2).
There is another Mary. On the next day of sabbath, when the whole world is silent, and the darkness still in the air, she is going to visit a tomb. ‘Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb…’ (Jn 20:1). Why did she go there at that odd hour? To look for the living among the dead? (Lk 24:5). Believing her testimony, or perhaps to test its veracity, Peter and John rushed to the tomb and even entered it. They came and went back. But why did Mary Magdalene stand weeping outside the tomb? (Jn 20:11). Why did she remain there even after conveying her concerns to the angels?
She could not understand the person who asked, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?’ (Jn 20:15) was the same Jesue whom she was looking for. How then did she, in the very next moment, realize the Lord when she heard her name – ‘Mary!’- from his lips? Her close personal intimacy with the Lord is the answer to all these questions.
She knew that nothing ends with death and that there is a God who loves us and whom we should love even beyond death. On her way to the tomb she had no doubt in her mind that she was going to look for that God, Jesus. She knew that choice is the freedom to ‘choose the better part’ (Lk 10:42) which she did in all its earnestness. Her faith was so strong that she ‘regarded everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 3:8).
This uncompromising faith gave her the confidence to go in search of her Lord ‘who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist’ (Rom 4: 17). For her, the death of Jesus on the cross was not the end of her quest for God. It is not surprising that Jesus blessed Mary Magdalene with a rare gift that even his beloved disciple was not given; to become the first person on earth to see his glorified body after resurrection!
On 3rd June 2016, the Church instituted the feast of Mary Magdalene by giving her the title ‘ Apostle of the Apostles’ (Apostolorum Apostola) and instructed to celebrate her feast on 22nd July.
She is the mediatrix for those who are fighting with the sins of flesh and find themselves incapable to come out of it, in spite of their many efforts. Let us also pray for her powerful intercession in conquering the thirst of the flesh and to fill our minds with the thirst for Jesus. May the good Lord give us the grace to choose the better part by ‘sitting at the Lord’s feet and listen to what he says.’
Mary Magdalene, Apostle of the Apostles, pray for us.
