July 22 2020 - St. Mary Magdalene - Ardent love for Christ

It can be argued, that Mary Magdalene is the second-most important woman in the New Testament. Throughout the four Gospels, she is named 14 times, more than most of the apostles.  Yet, there is a lot of confusion about some of Mary Magdalene’s biographical information.

There is no scriptural evidence that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute.  Nor is she the woman to have washed the feet of Jesus, that was Mary of Bethany in John’s Gospel; St. Mark and Luke do tell us that the Lord had cast out of her “seven demons”.

Movies like The Last Temptation of Christ and Jesus Christ Superstar portray Mary of Magdala as young, beautiful and as having…romantic interest…in Jesus, and we won’t even go into what Dan Brown, author of The Davinci Code has to say about her.

Mary Magdalene was a woman of deep faith and ardent love for the Lord. Everything we know about her speaks of her love for Jesus. St. Luke tells us that she helped provide for the needs of Jesus and His apostles out of her resources (Lk 8:3).

She, unlike many of the apostles, followed the Lord all the way to Calvary, and stood at the foot of the cross with Jesus (Jn 19:25). On Easter Sunday, she went to the tomb, found it empty and began to weep, believing the Lord's body to have been stolen.  But the Lord had risen, as he said he would, and spoke her name, "Mary".  Faith and Love then impelled her to bring the news of the resurrection to the apostles.

That is the last we read of her in the Scriptures.

Though we can’t take everything in pious legend as historical fact, there is something of her spirituality that we do well to consider. There is a legend that Mary Magdalene who was present at the crucifixion meditated on the Lord’s sufferings every day for the rest of her life. Faith and love for her meant contemplating the depths of the Lord’s sufferings, his wounds, his “stripes by which we are healed” as Isaiah says.

Why did she do this? So that she might not take his suffering for granted. To love a person is to value what they suffer, especially what they suffer on our behalf. This is one of the most important lessons in all of Christianity. We cannot overvalue the sufferings of Our Lord—what he suffered for us poor sinners who did not deserve salvation. Love itself suffered immeasurably for the unlovable.

By coming to deeper appreciation for what he suffered, we seek to conform our lives to his, that our lives may reflect the gratitude his sufferings deserve for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That all Christians may seek to imitate the examples of the saints and grow in the virtues of faith, hope, and love.

For the demon-possessed and those hardened in sin, that they, through the intercession of St. Mary Magdalene, may know true deliverance and that young people  may be preserved from evil, and discover the great joy of loving and being loved by Christ.

That Christians may imitate the generosity of Mary Magdalene in providing for the needs of the mission of the Church.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, immigrants and refugees, victims of human trafficking, natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for the unborn, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Hear Our Prayers, O Lord, and through the intercession of St. Mary Magdalene, free us from all that keeps us from the love of Christ. Through the same Christ Our Lord.

Good Friday 2018 - The Wood of the Cross on which hung the salvation of the world

In a few minutes, the cross will be processed up the aisle of the Church. It will be held aloft and the priest will chant, “Behold the Wood of the Cross, on which hung the salvation of the world.” To which each of us will respond “Come let us adore.”

There is an ancient Christian legend, concerning the wood of the cross,
dating all the way back to the 3rd century, the Legend of the Holy Rood: that when Adam fell sick, he sent his son Seth to the gates of the Garden of Eden to entreat God for an elixir from the Tree of Life to restore immortality to Adam, lost through Original Sin. Seth easily found his way to the garden, as no grass had grown over the footprints of Adam and Eve since their expulsion.

While Seth prayed at the gate, the Archangel Michael appeared to him, refusing Seth access to Eden and to the Tree of Life. However, Michael gave Seth a seed from the Tree of Knowledge from which Adam and Eve had eaten. On his return, Seth found his father dead, but placed the seed under Adam’s tongue and buried him.

From that seed sprang a tree, which had absorbed the blood of Adam. Generations later, Noah dug up this tree by the roots along with the body of Adam and took them onto the Ark to save them from the flood. And after the waters subsided, he buried the skull of Adam on what became Mount Calvary, or Golgatha, the place of the skulls. He planted the tree on the summit of Mount Lebanon. Centuries later, King Solomon cut down the tree, and cut it into a cross beam for his temple, but it wasn’t the right size. So Solomon cast aside the beam and buried it, and from the place where it was buried there bubbled forth a spring of water, which came to be known as the pool of Bethesda. To it the sick came to be healed.

Centuries later, that cross-beam floated to the surface of the pool. It was used as a bridge over which Jesus crossed into Jerusalem, and was finally used to fashion the cross upon which the Son of Man was crucified.

Is the legend of the Holy Rood true? Perhaps!

What is certainly true is that death came from a tree, and death was destroyed on a tree. From a tree, all the suffering of man can be traced. And from a tree, the suffering Son of Man, would redeem us. From a tree, division between God and man was wrought. And by a tree, God bridged the gap, he filled the chasm, he fashioned a bridge for Him and man to be reconciled.

Through God’s providence, the work of the evil one is undone by turning his own weapons against him. Suffering and death, which entered the world as a consequence of sin, were to become the very means by which sin was vanquished.

And yet, today, we are here not to worship a dead piece of wood, we worship the One who saved us through it. Though by venerating the cross, we honor the suffering of Christ. We approach the cross we such reverence, that we may revere the one who died for us. That his suffering may be imprinted upon us, that it may mark our lives, and mark us for salvation.

We bring to the cross today all the needs of the world and the church, all the needs of our families, all of our sufferings, all unbelievers, and all who suffer for the faith. That through the cross, we may experience the salvation Christ won for us, the defeat of sin and death, the healing of our deepest wounds, the fulfillment of all justice, the overflowing mercy of God

We turn our eyes to the cross, that we may one day see the one who suffered upon it face to face. We touch the cross, that we may feel his gentle caress when we are called to face our own, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.