603 FEAST OF SAINT MARY MAGDALENE
CCC Cross Reference:
Sng 3:1-4 2709
2 Cor 5:14 616, 851; 2 Cor 5:15 605, 655, 1269; 2 Cor 5:17 1214, 1265; 2 Cor 5:17-18 1999
Jn 20:1 2174; Jn 20:2 640; Jn 20:11-18 641; Jn 20:13 640; Jn 20:14-15 645, 659; Jn 20:14 645; Jn 20:16 645; Jn 20:17 443, 645, 654, 660, 2795
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FIRST READING
First Option
Song of Songs 3:1-4b
The Bride says:
On my bed at night I sought him whom my heart loves
I sought him but I did not find him. I will rise then and go about the city;
in the streets and crossings I will seek Him whom my heart loves.
I sought him but I did not find him. The watchmen came upon me,
as they made their rounds of the city:
Have you seen him whom my heart loves?
I had hardly left them
when I found him whom my heart loves.
OR
Second Option
2 Corinthians 5:14-17
Brothers and sisters:
The love of Christ impels us,
once we have come to the conviction that one died for all;
therefore, all have died.
He indeed died for all,
so that those who live might no longer live for themselves
but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh;
even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh,
yet now we know him so no longer.
So whoever is in Christ is a new creation:
the old things have passed away;
behold, new things have come.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
Psalm 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
R. (2) My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
O God, you are my God whom I seek;
for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts
like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary
to see your power and your glory,
For your kindness is a greater good than life;
my lips shall glorify you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus will I bless you while I live;
lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name.
As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied,
and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
You are my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.
My soul clings fast to you;
your right hand upholds me.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
GOSPEL
John 20:1-2, 11-18
On the first day of the week,
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
"They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don't know where they put him."
Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb
and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet
where the Body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?"
She said to them, "They have taken my Lord,
and I don't know where they laid him."
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?"
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
"Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him."
Jesus said to her, "Mary!"
She turned and said to him in Hebrew,
"Rabbouni," which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her,
"Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
But go to my brothers and tell them,
`I am going to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God."'
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,
"I have seen the Lord,"
and then reported what he told her.
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading: Song of Songs 3:1-4
The bride says this:
On my bed, at night, I sought him
whom my heart loves.
I sought but did not find him.
So I will rise and go through the City;
in the streets and in the squares
I will seek him whom my heart loves.
I sought but did not find him.
The watchmen came upon me
on their rounds in the City:
‘Have you seen him whom my heart loves?’
Scarcely had I passed them
when I found him whom my heart loves.
Or:
2 Corinthians 5:14-17
The love of Christ overwhelms us when we reflect that if one man has died for all, then all men should be dead; and the reason he died for all was so that living men should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life for them.
From now onwards, therefore, we do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh. Even if we did once know Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know him now. And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 62(63):2-6,8-9
For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord my God.
O God, you are my God, for you I long;
for you my soul is thirsting.
My body pines for you
like a dry, weary land without water.
For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord my God.
So I gaze on you in the sanctuary
to see your strength and your glory.
For your love is better than life,
my lips will speak your praise.
For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord my God.
So I will bless you all my life,
in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul shall be filled as with a banquet,
my mouth shall praise you with joy.
For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord my God.
For you have been my help;
in the shadow of your wings I rejoice.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand holds me fast.
For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord my God.
Gospel: John 20:1-2,11-18
It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb’ she said ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’
Meanwhile Mary stayed outside near the tomb, weeping. Then, still weeping, she stooped to look inside, and saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head, the other at the feet. They said, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ ‘They have taken my Lord away’ she replied ‘and I don’t know where they have put him.’ As she said this she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not recognise him. Jesus said, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and remove him.’ Jesus said, ‘Mary!’ She knew him then and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbuni!’ – which means Master. Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go and find the brothers, and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ So Mary of Magdala went and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her.
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
Friday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial: St Mary Magdalene, Disciple of the Lord
From: Song of Solomon 3:1-4
Third canto: Nocturne
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[1] Upon my bed by night
I sought him whom my soul loves:
I sought him but found him not;
I called him, but he gave no answer.
[2] "I will rise now and go about the city,
in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my soul loves."
I sought him, but found him not.
[3] The watchmen found me,
as they went about the city.
"Have you seen him whom my soul loves?"
[4] Scarcely had I passed them,
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go
until I had brought him into my mother's house,
and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
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Commentary:
3:1-5. This canto deals with a second stage of love. It is night-time, in the city; the lover is absent, and the beloved searches for him until she finds him. The speaker is the beloved. United in love with the one she loves (v. 5), she looks back, recalling her first fruitless search (v. 1), and what happened then and her second failed attempt to find him (v. 2); then, at her third attempt -- success (vv. 3-4). The canto in this way describes a trial she has undergone; she overcomes, thanks to her perseverance. ''If you want to stay close to Christ, seek out suffering and do not fear it. For sometimes Christ is sooner found in the midst of bodily torments and in the hands of the torturers. Scarcely had I passed them, says the Song (v. 4). After a very short time, then, you too will he freed from the hands of those who persecute you, and no longer will you he subject to the powers of this world. Christ will come out to meet you, and he will not allow temptations to threaten you for very long. The one who seeks Christ in this way and finds him can say: I held him, and would not let him go until I brought him into my mother's house, the home of the one who bore me in her womb. What are your mother and your home if not the most intimate and hidden parts of your soul? Keep your house well guarded; keep the most secluded rooms well cleaned, so that the Holy Spirit may come to live in an immaculate home […]. The ones who look for Christ in this way, who ask for him in this way, will never he abandoned by him; he will come to visit them often because he is with us until the end of the world'' (St Ambrose, De virginitate, 12, 68, 74-75; 13, 77-78).
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From: 2 Corinthians 5:14-17
The Ministry of Reconciliation (Continuation)
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[14] For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. [15] And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
[16] From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer. [17] Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.
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Commentary:
14-15. The Apostle briefly describes the effects of Christ's death, a death he underwent out of love for man; elsewhere at greater length (cf. Rom 6:1-11; 14:7-9; Gal 2:19-20; 2 Tim 2: 11) he goes into this doctrine which is so closely connected with the solidarity that exists between Jesus Christ and the members of his mystical body. Christ, the head of that body, died for all his members: and they have mystically died to sin with and in him. Christ's death, is moreover, the price paid for men--their ransom which sets them free from the slavery of sin, death and the devil. As a result of it we belong no longer to ourselves but to Christ (cf. 1 Cor 6:19), and the new life--in grace and freedom--which he has won for us we must live for his sake: "None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord [...]. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living" (Rom 14:7-9).
"What follows from this?", St Francis de Sales asks. "I seem to hear the voice of the Apostle like a peal of thunder startling our heart: It is easy to see, Christians, what Christ desired by dying for us. What did he desire but that we should become like him? 'That those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.' How powerful a consequence is this in the matter of love! Jesus Christ died for us; by his death he has given us life; we only live because he died; he died for us, by us, and in us; our life then is no longer ours, but belongs to him who has purchased it for us by his death: we are therefore no more to live to ourselves but to him; not in ourselves but in him; nor for ourselves but for him" ("Treatise on the Love of God", book 7, chap. 8).
"The love of Christ controls us", urges us: with these words St Paul sums up what motivates his tireless apostolic activity--the love of Jesus, so immense that it impels him to spend every minute of his life bringing this same love to all mankind. The love of Christ should also inspire all other Christians to commit themselves to respond to Christ's love, and it should fill them with a desire to bring to all souls the salvation won by Christ. "We are urged on by the charity of Christ (cf. 2 Cor 5:14) to take upon our shoulders a part of this task of saving souls. Look: the redemption was consummated when Jesus died on the Cross, in shame and glory, 'a stumbling block' to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles (1 Cor 1:23). But the redemption will, by the will of God, be carried out continually until our Lord's time comes. It is impossible to live according to the heart of Jesus Christ and not to know that we are sent, as he was, 'to save sinners' (1 Tim 1:15), with the clear realization that we ourselves need to trust in the mercy of God more and more every day. As a result, we will foster in ourselves a vehement desire to live as coredeemers with Christ, to save all souls with him" ("Christ Is Passing By", 120f).
16-17. "Even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view": Paul seems to be referring to knowledge based only on external appearances and on human criteria. Paul's Judaizing opponents do look on things from a human point of view, as Paul himself did before his conversion. Nothing he says here can be taken as implying that St Paul knew Jesus personally during his life on earth (he goes on to say that now he does not know him personally); what he is saying is that previously he judged Christ on the basis of his own Pharisee prejudices; now, on the other hand, he knows him as God and Savior of men.
In v. 17 he elaborates on this contrast between before and after his conversion, as happens to Christians through Baptism. For through the grace of Baptism a person becomes a member of Christ's body, he lives by and is "in Christ" (cf., e.g., Gal 6:15; Eph 2:10, 15f; Cor 3:9f); the Redemption brings about a new creation. Commenting on this passage St Thomas Aquinas reminds us that creation is the step from non-being to being, and that in the supernatural order, after original sin, "a new creation was necessary, whereby (creatures) would be made with the life of grace; this truly is a creation from nothing, because those without grace are nothing (cf. 1 Cor 13:2) [...]. St Augustine says, 'for sin is nothingness, and men become nothingness when they sin'" ("Commentary on 2 Cor, ad loc.").
"The new has come": St John Chrysostom points out the radical change which the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ has brought about, and the consequent difference between Judaism and Christianity: "Instead of the earthly Jerusalem, we have received that Jerusalem which is above; and instead of a material temple we have seen a spiritual temple; instead of tablets of stone, holding the divine Law, our own bodies have become the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit; instead of circumcision, Baptism; instead of manna, the Lord's body; instead of water from a rock, blood from his side; instead of Moses' or Aaron's rod, the cross of the Savior; instead of the promised land, the kingdom of heaven" ("Hom on 2 Cor", 11).
From: John 20:1-2; 11-18
The Empty Tomb
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[1] Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. [2] So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him."
The Appearance To Mary Magdalene
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[11] But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; [12] and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. [13] They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." [14] Saying this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. [15] Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" Supposing Him to be gardener, she said to Him, "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away." [16] Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). [17] Jesus said to her, "Do not hold Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God." [18] Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that He had said these things to her.
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Commentary:
1-2. All four Gospels report the first testimonies of the holy women and the disciples regarding Christ's glorious resurrection, beginning with the fact of the empty tomb (cf. Matthew 28:1-15; Mark 16:1ff; Luke 24:1-12) and then telling of the various appearances of the risen Jesus.
Mary Magdalene was one of the women who provided for our Lord during His journeys (Luke 8:1-3); along with the Virgin Mary she bravely stayed with Him right up to His final moments (John 19:25), and she saw where His body was laid (Luke 23: 55). Now, after the obligatory Sabbath rest, she goes to visit the tomb. The Gospel points out that she went "early, when it was still dark": her love and veneration led her to go without delay, to be with our Lord's body.
11-18. Mary's affection and sensitivity lead her to be concerned about what has become of the dead body of Jesus. This woman out of whom seven demons were cast (cf. Luke 8:2) stayed faithful during His passion and even now her love is still ardent: our Lord had freed her from the Evil One and she responded to that grace humbly and generously.
After consoling Mary Magdalene, Jesus gives her a message for the Apostles, whom He tenderly calls His "brethren". This message implies that He and they have the same Father, though each in an essentially different way: "I am ascending to My Father"--My own Father by nature--"and to your Father"--for He is your Father through the adoption I have won for you and by My death. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, shows His great mercy and understanding by gathering together all His disciples who had abandoned Him during His passion and were now in hiding for fear of the Jews (John 20:19).
Mary Magdalene's perseverance teaches us that anyone who sincerely keeps searching for Jesus Christ will eventually find Him. Jesus' gesture in calling His disciples His "brethren" despite their having run away should fill us with love in the midst of our own infidelities.
15. From Jesus' dialogue with Mary Magdalene, we can see the frame of mind all His disciples must have been in: they were not expecting the resurrection.
17. "Do not hold Me": the use of the negative imperative in the Greek, reflected in the New Vulgate ("noli me tenere") indicates that our Lord is telling Mary to release her hold of Him, to let Him go, since she will have another chance to see Him before His ascension into Heaven.
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
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