Loving By Knowing

𝐉𝐔𝐋𝐘 𝟐𝟐, 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟑: 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐓. 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐃𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐄 (𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐄)

𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝟑:𝟏-𝟒𝐛 𝐨𝐫 𝟐 𝐂𝐨𝐫 𝟓:𝟏𝟒-𝟏𝟕

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟔𝟑:𝟐-𝟔, 𝟖-𝟗 “𝐌𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐲 𝐆𝐨𝐝.” 𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐉𝐍 𝟐𝟎:𝟏-𝟐, 𝟏𝟏-𝟏𝟖

𝑲𝒆𝒚 𝑽𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆: "𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒓𝒅..."(𝒗.18) 

𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐁𝐘 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐆

         Today we celebrate the Feast Day of Mary Magdalene who holds the distinction of the very first person to whom Jesus showed himself upon his resurrection on the third day following his death in fulfillment of the Scriptures.

         This event is significant because the absence of women among the 12 Apostles of Jesus has raised some questions and even criticisms that there was a bias in the way the disciples are being treated. But it must be pointed out that there were many women among the followers of Jesus and accounts of his life on earth will show that he treated women with dignity.

         It was the culture in the time of Jesus that relatives and or friends would visit the tomb of their loved one for at least three days after the burial but since Jesus was buried on a Friday and the next day was a Sabbath the disciples could not visit his tomb for fear of breaking the law and everyone must have looked forward to visiting his tomb on Sunday.

         But while everyone was still asleep on that Sunday after the burial, Mary Magdalene from whom Jesus drove seven demons out of her was the first one to wake up and immediately proceeded to visit the tomb. This was probably the only thing she could do to express her love for Jesus who freed her from her being enslaved by demons.

         Mary Magdalene thus lived a life of unending gratitude to Jesus whom she followed all the way to his crucifixion and very early on Sunday it still was Mary who went ahead of the Disciples to visit the tomb of Jesus because she loved Our Lord and love was all that she could bring to the tomb.

         Overwhelmed by the sight of an empty tomb, Mary sought Peter and John who came running towards the tomb and here we see three people with one common denominator – they all loved Jesus. Mary who loved Jesus so much after she was freed from the demons that possessed her, John the disciple whom Jesus loved and, Peter who denied Jesus three times and who he ran with John as an expression of his remorse and love for Jesus.

         And while Peter and John were at the tomb, Jesus reciprocated and gave Mary the distinction of being the first person to see him as the Risen Christ. This scenario certainly raised some questions why Jesus did not appear to his disciples first but the words in Scriptures could explain why as it states in 𝑷𝒓𝒐 8:17 “𝑰 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒆; 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒌 𝒎𝒆 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒆.”

         Indeed, Mary Magdalene was a prime example of someone who loved and believed in Jesus even when she could not yet understand the depth of his earthly ministry

         But grief filled Mary’s heart, and her eyes must have been filled with tears that she failed to recognize Jesus whom she mistook for somebody else and it was not until Jesus called out her name “Mary” that she recognized the voice and all she could say was “𝑹𝒂𝒃𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒊” which in Hebrew means “Master.’

         Jesus acknowledged her childlike faith by appearing to her first and by entrusting her with the first message of his resurrection “𝒈𝒐 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒂𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒚 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓, 𝒎𝒚 𝑮𝒐𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑮𝒐𝒅.” (𝒗.17)

         Mary responded with joy and obedience by seeking out the other disciples and told them “𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒓𝒅,” and she proceeded to give them the message of Jesus.

         What this Gospel account is telling us is that we too are being invited to live a life of gratitude for Our Lord who released us from our slavery to sin and who brought us out of darkness and into the marvelous light.

         Like Mary, Jesus is near to each one of us and he is constantly calling us, but we remain deaf to his voice because of the other voices that fill our hearing. In the world that we live in today, our ears are being pounded by the sound of materialism, desire for fame and fortune, the sound of unbelief and doubt in the one true God, the sound of comfortable living, the sound of self-centeredness and uncaring attitude and indifference towards the poor, the sound of illicit relationships, corruption and greed. These are the sounds we hear that have kept us from hearing the voice of Jesus.

         Many times, we pretend not to hear the voice of Jesus because our lives are incompatible with the kind of sacrificial living that we will be asked of us if we are to respond to the call of Jesus and many of us just couldn’t give up the comforts of life regardless of the mark of sin attached to our way of life.

         The resurrection of Jesus is the key to our Christian faith and we whose eyes are clouded with the lures of the world cannot meet Christ until we discover for ourselves that Our Lord is indeed alive. Like Mary, our hearts must instead be flooded with love when we hear Our Lord calling our names.

         Most often, we also don’t hear his voice because unlike Mary and the other disciples, we may have set aside our need for prayers and our love for the Scriptures. Time was when our community grew by leaps and bounds when the mere mention of a mission activity will bring excitement and spring everyone to their feet.

         The venues of our BLD Prayer Meetings as our Corporate Worship was called then were filled to the rafters and one could feel the tremendous outpouring of the anointing of the Holy Spirit at the sound of members praying in tongues.

         The strict observance of prayer and fasting became the norm in those days. Members come to the venue of the prayer meetings ahead of time and they can be seen huddling in prayer or sharing the Scriptures with one another.

         The Community has indeed changed. Attendance to the Corporate Worships and the Word Sharing Circles have dwindled in recent years. Candidates to the Marriage Encounter Weekends and even the Life in the Spirit Seminars have dipped and the retention ratio has also dropped. Members don’t bring their Bibles anymore to the Corporate Worship.

         And on many occasions when the current situation is being discussed and assessed the only thing that is not being asked is “𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴?”        

         Not all is lost, however, because the lukewarm and even those who have a misdirected concept of what the renewal is all about can be on fire again if we – like Mary and the disciples – will recognize that Christ is alive and that he is calling us to a life of prayer. We need to relearn how to get down on our knees again. We don’t just pay lip service to fasting, but we have to make prayer with fasting our norm.

         In other words, we must bring to life the words of Pope Francis in Lumen Fidei that faith should not remain as a head knowledge. This must be lived and for faith to be complete, it must be shared to the rest of the world. This is also what St. Paul is telling us that we shouldn’t be stuck in just being hearers of the Word, but we should also be doers of the Word.

         How we will respond will determine our eternal future. (𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 – 𝘑𝘶𝘭𝘺 22, 2025)