“Original Unity”

 

July 23, 2024

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 Hi!  How is each and every one?  I am preparing this post today, the 22^nd of July, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Mary Magdalene. She is called “the Penitent”.  St. Mary was given the name ‘Magdalen’ because, though a Jewish girl, she lived in a Gentile town called Magdala, in northern Galilee, and her culture and manners were those of a Gentile.

Aleteia

 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).  She is 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.

The Greek Fathers, as a whole, distinguish the three persons:

1.      The “sinner” of Luke 7:36-50;

2.      The sister of Martha and Lazarus, Luke 10:38-42 and John 11; and

3.      Mary Magdalen.

On the other hand most of the Latin Fathers hold that these three were one and the same.  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).

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, he 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.  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.  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.

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, fourteen years after Our Lord’s death, St. Mary was put in a boat by the Jews without sails or oars along with Sts. Lazarus and Martha, St. Maximin (who baptized her), St Sodonius (“the man born blind”), her maid Sera, and the body of St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin.  They were sent drifting out to sea and landed on the shores of Southern France, where St. Mary spent the rest of her life as a contemplative in a cave known as Sainte-Baume.  It is said that she was given the Holy Eucharist daily by angels as her only food, and died when she was 72.  Just before she died, she was transported miraculously to the chapel of St. Maximin, where she received the last sacraments.

She has been forgiven much and that is why she loves much.  Mary Magdalen does not stand alone, that she is the only sinner.  You and I are sinners, who is not? But the way Mary Magdalene showed her sorrow and contrition the way she did, bought the most expensive perfume to pour on the feet of Jesus and to wipe his feet dry with her long hair is remarkably her trademark if you can say it that way. Following is her story as told by St. Luke.

Christian Iconography

A Sinful Woman Anoints Jesus Lk 7: 36-50
(Matthew 26:6–13; Mark 14:3–9; John 12:1–8)

36Then one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to eat with him, and He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37When a sinful woman from that town learned that Jesus was dining there, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume. 38As she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. Then she kissed His feet and anointed them with the perfume.39When the Pharisee who had invited Jesus saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, He would know who this is and what kind of woman is touching Him—for she is a sinner!”40But Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”“Tell me, Teacher,” he said.41“Two men were debtors to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,e and the other fifty. 42When they were unable to repay him, he forgave both of them. Which one, then, will love him more?”43“I suppose the one who was forgiven more,” Simon replied.“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.44And turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give Me water for My feet, but she wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45You did not greet Me with a kiss, but she has not stopped kissing My feet since I arrived. 46You did not anoint My head with oil, but she has anointed My feet with perfume. 47Therefore I tell you, because her many sins have been forgiven, she has loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”48Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”49But those at the table began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”50And Jesus told the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Her story is an eloquent experience and testimony on the topic of this post on the The Root of Our Longing for Dignity ((From Broken Gods, Hope, Healing, and the Seven Longings of the Human Heart, Gregory K. Popcak, Ph. D. Ch 5).

Vatican Museums

The Root of Our Longing for Dignity

St. John Paul the great has asserted that in the beginning, before the Fall, we experienced an “Original Unity” where we were intimately aware of God’s love for us (2006).  We were made to be loved and to be aware of how much God loves us.  That love enabled us to stand “naked and not ashamed” (Gn 2:25) in the eyes of God.  That is to say, confident in God’s undying love for us and the innate dignity that love has bestowed on us, we had no doubts about our worth or the value of any other human person.  We had nothing to fear and nothing of which to be ashamed on any level or our physical, psychological, emotional, or spiritual being. 

Traveling in Tuscany

 Then sin entered the world, and with it came shame.  What is the first thing Adam and Eve do after they eat the forbidden fruit of the Garden?  They hear God taking his daily stroll through Eden, and they hide themselves.

When they heard the sound of the LORD God walking about in the garden at the breezy time of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.  The LORD God then called to the man and asked him:  Where are you?  He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid” (Gn 3:8-10).

St. John Paul the Great argues that their hiding themselves indicates that when sin (the choosing of our own path as opposed to God’s plan for our fulfillment) entered the world, we separated ourselves from God and experienced the fear and shame that comes from being separate, exposed and vulnerable.  We feel ashamed at how little we are, how insufficient we are, without God.  We were naked all along, but we were covered by God’s grace.  Having ripped away that cloak of grace, we are exposed to spiritual elements in a way that leaves us feeling powerless, terrified, nowhere near up to the task before us—what Sartre referred to as existential nausea.  What chance does a few ounces of carbon and water stand against the enormity of the universe?  We must remember that our dignity comes from sharing in God’s divinity, which is our destiny.  Having separated ourselves from that path, we realize how little we are on our own, and for the first time, we feel a lack, we feel small, insufficient, and utterly undignified.

Forward Ministries

 But dignity is both our original state and our ultimate destiny.  Although we lost it, we still remember it.  Our need for it tugs at our souls, and we ache for its restoration.  This ache has continued to be felt through the ages as the divine longing for dignity.  We all know that we are worth more than…this.  That is, we intuit, somehow, that we were meant to be more than whatever it is we are now.  No matter how much or how little we have accomplished, we recognize that it is nothing compared to what we are meant to be and do.  As Qoheleth remarked, “Vanity of vanities, all things are vanity” (Eccl 1:2)!

 

Catholic Daily Reflections

 We were once united to God, and his intimate presence warmed us.  We were covered by his protection; he made us his sons and daughters, marked us as his own, and confirmed in us the sense that with him we were capable of anything.  But having lost all of this, we desperately grasp for anything that will give us some vague sense of worth or meaning—however fleeting. We know intuitively that we cannot restore our divine dignity by our own power, so we seek to prove our worth in the only pathetic manner we think is available to us:  trying to be superior to—or at least “as good as”—others.  This is the sin of envy.

Aeon

As always you and I will get a lot more about the topic when we talk it over with Our Lord in our moments of silent prayer.  You and I will receive from Him very concrete inspirations on how to go about your personal ordinary life every day.

See you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us together again.”

Affectionately,                    

Guadalupinky