Church of Jesus Christ of the Universe

By Mauro

22 July 2023

2Cor 5, 14-17; Ps 62; Jn 20, 1.11-18

In this vigil, we remember and celebrate St. Mary Magdalene.

If we allow St. Mary Magdalene to speak to our spirit and, in communion with us, to help the children of God, as all saints do, she will also help us to discern her path in our lives, the stages she went through and why she did it. She is the perfect example of a soul that loved Jesus Christ and let her love be transformed into the love of the Son of God, who is seated at the right hand of the Father.

The life of Mary Magdalene went through a complete transformation. It is the example of a woman that became a new human being. For this reason, she was also the first to receive the announcement. We know that Mary Most Holy was the very first, as I believe, but Mary Magdalene is the first after Mary Most Holy to have received the announcement of the Resurrection.

Mary Magdalene loved Christ. We know about her love, I mean those who have read Maria Valtorta’s books know about it.[1] She was attracted to Christ, but also initially rejected Him. She was a dead being that rose again by the encounter with Life and then was transformed by Life. She had great willpower and knew how to make it available to God. In the beginning, God used her strength to eliminate everything in her that was still attached to human feelings, such as selfishness and shame. Thanks to this strength, He could take her with Him throughout Israel where she was mocked, persecuted and slandered.

What was the first characteristic of Mary Magdalene that we too must have in us? What is she asking us to see in ourselves? The desire to be with Christ. Do we desire to know Jesus so that He can lead us to know the Father? That desire becomes knowledge, and knowledge becomes love; the more we love, the more we know; the more we know, the more we love. And, that desire allowed her to overcome all the trials that Jesus put her through, but she trusted Him and overcame them with her love and desire to belong to Him.

That desire becomes a method of discernment, to make order and cleanliness, to find the things that matter in life. Does this desire to belong to Christ make us overcome all things? Does it make us put Christ first? That desire to belong to CHRIST must surpass any other desire, any other duty; it must be in the first place. With it, we win over everything. It brings us to DISCERNMENT. In every choice, big and small, do we want Christ? Do we want to know Him, do we want to love Him? Do we truly want to be one with Him? If we do, we will clearly recognise the things that are of no use. The opposite is to place Christ in the things that we want, but then it is not true that we desire to belong to Christ.

In doing so, Jesus Christ becomes the centre, the master of our life, because we have truly offered our life to Him. It is a path of desire and faith. We desire something we must believe in. That faith nourishes the hope that we will meet Him, the hope in the New Creation, the hope that helps us overcome trials. However, both faith and hope are nurtured by love. We must love Christ. Love increases faith and hope; faith keeps us going when we think we are faltering. Love, faith and hope are connected, as Saint Paul said in his hymn to love.[2]

Mary Magdalene experienced this. We know this reality, but we must live it. For each of us, it will be a journey like hers, which leads us to die to ourselves, to our ideas, to our thoughts. She will make us truly put Jesus above everything and everyone. The thoughts that always lead to compromises between our desire to belong to Christ and to squeeze Him into our programmes and ideas will die. This is a tendency to “fix things” according to our mind. Let us be careful not to do this.

Christ’s things are never normal; everything becomes extraordinary. He offers us an extraordinary life; He proposes the New Creation to us, and thus a life of risen people. Nothing is normal or human; nothing can be adapted to human thinking. It is as the Gospel says: “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me …” (Mt 10,37-42). This is what Mary Magdalene put into practice.

As she lived like this, Christ was able to lead her, and He wants to lead us, too, to pass from the love of Jesus of Nazareth to the love for the Son of God, who is seated at the right hand of the Father. Today’s Gospel[3] and the Reading of Saint Paul are clear. This is precisely the process we are asked to accomplish. I will begin with Saint Paul: “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2Cor 5,14-17).

This is the path of Mary Magdalene. I said that she rose when Jesus called her and through the path that she walked. In today’s Gospel, Jesus appeared before her but she did not recognise Him; she saw two Angels but did not recognise them; she talked to Jesus but she did not recognise Him again. Yet, here she took another leap forward. She loved Christ, and she was so strong as to challenge the Romans and everyone under the Cross, and John did so, too. She was not afraid of anyone. However, she had to take another leap forward, and I propose all of us take that leap, too. The leap lies in Jesus’ words: “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20,17). In these words, we see Christ who leads us to the Father.

Thus, we must enter into communion with Christ, become one with Him, and take this leap. In this Gospel, Jesus paved the way for the New Creation. It was not there before; that day, in that place, He opened the path towards the New Creation. Before, the dead had been in Abraham’s bosom. He paved the way and was the FIRST to walk it. Then, He descended to Hell and took all the worthy souls up to the Father. He paved the way and proposed it to Mary Magdalene and the disciples, and now He proposes it to us. Let us be led to the Father by Christ with our love for Him and our desire to know Him. Let us allow Him to always put things in order, for in every moment of life we will have to make choices. When we place Christ at the centre, He will help us make the small and big choices. Afterwards, let us leave everything to Him.

We have said it many times: the Saints are enriched with graces, and now they work more than ever with us to help us go through this process of growth. We must come to the point to have seen and touched the Lord already here in view of the New Creation. We cannot enter it yet, but we can sense it, and we have the graces to do so. Moreover, we have Mary Magdalene, St. John the Apostle and our Patron Saints that constantly encourage us, and Christ and Mary are among us.

I think the most beautiful thing Mary Magdalene could wish you, and I wish you the same, is to have that open relationship with Jesus that she had. She was not ashamed of not recognising Jesus. He approached her and felt her desire to find Him: “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him” (John 20,15). Mary Magdalene loved Christ.

Let us ask Mary Magdalene and Mary Most Holy to accompany us and never leave us. Let us ask Mary Most Holy to use Her power also to shake us if necessary. Let us ask Her to give Her blessing to us and to all those who are caught in situations that seem hopeless because they do not let themselves be involved in the love of Christ. Her blessing together with the power of the whole Church may release the prisoners. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

[1] See Maria Valtorta, “The Poem of the Man-God”

[2] See 1Cor 13,1

[3] See Jn 20, 1-2.11-18