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| MARY OF MAGDALA MEETS JESUS. Image from pinterest.com |
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary
went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed,
and ran to announce the news to his disciples.
And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them.
They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.
Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid.
Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee,
and there they will see me."
According to the online Catholic Encyclopedia, the word Apostle comes from the Greek word apostello which means to send forth or to dispatch hence an Apostle is someone who is sent or dispatched, particularly one who is entrusted a foreign mission, but more important than a messenger, much more like a delegate; more specifically, the word means one of the Twelve, that is, Peter and the other eleven who formed the inner group who journeyed with the Lord; but it also have broader meanings which may include inferior ones, probably those disciples with special missions but not as important as the Twelve.
Mary of Magdala is considered by many as an Apostle to the Apostles because she was the one whom the Lord has given the mission to announce to Peter and the rest about the Lord's resurrection. Many would like to equate her apostleship to that of the Twelve but the New Testament clearly applies the strict meaning of the term Apostle to the Twelve [see Mark 3: 13-19; Matthew 10: 1-4; and Luke 6: 12-16]. As for Mary, she was mentioned as one of the women who supported Jesus our Lord and his Apostles out of their own means [see Luke 8: 1-3 ].
We shall not deal with some issues related to Mary's being an apostle, either in the sense of the Twelve or in a much broader sense, or in some special way perhaps in the same manner that the Church has considered many saints as Apostles because they have been the first Christians to proclaim the Gospel to a specific area, group, or country, such as St Patrick, the Apostle to Ireland; the brothers Sts Cyril and Methodius, the Apostles to the Slavs; and more. Let us just take note that the Lord simply told her to tell His brothers to go to Galilee to see Him there and there was no further special command for her to accompany them to Galilee. Important thing is that she was there at the right place at the right time to be given such an important mission and that she readily obeyed and told the Apostles, particularly Peter and John, about the resurrection of the Lord and His command that they, the Apostles, go to Galilee to see Him there.
What we can learn from this episode with Mary being sent to the Apostles is her humility and obedience, the usual combination of virtues in Saints, including the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Joseph. She readily obeyed and never claimed special attention, if she did, she probably would have demanded to go with the Apostles to Galilee. In the Gospel according to John, she was not allowed by the Lord to touch Him [see John 20:17], for He told her that He has not not yet ascended to the Father, unlike in this Matthean account which tells us that they embraced His feet. But she was also told to go to the Apostles to tell them His message which she did with the following introduction, "I have seen the Lord!" [John 20:18].
We can observe the opposite with some people who claim to be apostles of the Lord, of having received special instructions, insight, or inspirations from the Lord, of having seen the Lord, in our times, initiating groups, communities and sects for their own purposes, even contradicting the Church which the Lord has established upon the Cephas, in English, Rock, that is, St Peter. We must remember that when the Lord sent Mary, it was to His chosen leaders of the Church He has established on earth, not to someone else, not even to let her initiate her own group which some people might think perhaps for the fact that unlike the male disciples, she and the other women were the ones who fearlessly went to visit the tomb very early after the Sabbath.
But she was just another instrument, another messenger, and we may say, another apostle in a different manner than the Twelve, that time just Eleven, since Judas Iscariot already took his life, and Matthias has not yet been selected to fill in his place. She may have some special relationship with the Lord - granting she's the same Mary who was the sister of Lazarus and Martha - but her role is much different than that of the Eleven, hence she wasn't called to go to Galilee with the Eleven to receive the great commission [Matthew 28: 19-20]. But she probably was with the larger group of disciples when the Holy Spirit came down on Pentecost.
Mary surely had a special role in the mission of the Lord and in the early Church, a role which she humbly and obediently fulfilled. She still has an important place in the present Church for she reminds us of humility and obedience like many other Saints, perhaps in her own special manner. We too have our own unique roles to fulfill in the Church. We too can become instruments, messengers, even apostles, of the Lord in our own special way, rather, in some special manner which the Lord chooses for us to perform. Some of us may be called to succeed in the shoes of the Apostles, being called to the priesthood; some, to enter the religious life; still some, to be like the disciples on the way to Emmaus whose experience of the Lord was meant to confirm the experience of the others.
Like Mary, let us humbly and obediently fulfill our roles for we are all members of the One Body of Christ, the Church, and her health depends on our proper functioning in coordination with all the other members of the same Body!
We shall not deal with some issues related to Mary's being an apostle, either in the sense of the Twelve or in a much broader sense, or in some special way perhaps in the same manner that the Church has considered many saints as Apostles because they have been the first Christians to proclaim the Gospel to a specific area, group, or country, such as St Patrick, the Apostle to Ireland; the brothers Sts Cyril and Methodius, the Apostles to the Slavs; and more. Let us just take note that the Lord simply told her to tell His brothers to go to Galilee to see Him there and there was no further special command for her to accompany them to Galilee. Important thing is that she was there at the right place at the right time to be given such an important mission and that she readily obeyed and told the Apostles, particularly Peter and John, about the resurrection of the Lord and His command that they, the Apostles, go to Galilee to see Him there.
What we can learn from this episode with Mary being sent to the Apostles is her humility and obedience, the usual combination of virtues in Saints, including the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Joseph. She readily obeyed and never claimed special attention, if she did, she probably would have demanded to go with the Apostles to Galilee. In the Gospel according to John, she was not allowed by the Lord to touch Him [see John 20:17], for He told her that He has not not yet ascended to the Father, unlike in this Matthean account which tells us that they embraced His feet. But she was also told to go to the Apostles to tell them His message which she did with the following introduction, "I have seen the Lord!" [John 20:18].
We can observe the opposite with some people who claim to be apostles of the Lord, of having received special instructions, insight, or inspirations from the Lord, of having seen the Lord, in our times, initiating groups, communities and sects for their own purposes, even contradicting the Church which the Lord has established upon the Cephas, in English, Rock, that is, St Peter. We must remember that when the Lord sent Mary, it was to His chosen leaders of the Church He has established on earth, not to someone else, not even to let her initiate her own group which some people might think perhaps for the fact that unlike the male disciples, she and the other women were the ones who fearlessly went to visit the tomb very early after the Sabbath.
But she was just another instrument, another messenger, and we may say, another apostle in a different manner than the Twelve, that time just Eleven, since Judas Iscariot already took his life, and Matthias has not yet been selected to fill in his place. She may have some special relationship with the Lord - granting she's the same Mary who was the sister of Lazarus and Martha - but her role is much different than that of the Eleven, hence she wasn't called to go to Galilee with the Eleven to receive the great commission [Matthew 28: 19-20]. But she probably was with the larger group of disciples when the Holy Spirit came down on Pentecost.
Mary surely had a special role in the mission of the Lord and in the early Church, a role which she humbly and obediently fulfilled. She still has an important place in the present Church for she reminds us of humility and obedience like many other Saints, perhaps in her own special manner. We too have our own unique roles to fulfill in the Church. We too can become instruments, messengers, even apostles, of the Lord in our own special way, rather, in some special manner which the Lord chooses for us to perform. Some of us may be called to succeed in the shoes of the Apostles, being called to the priesthood; some, to enter the religious life; still some, to be like the disciples on the way to Emmaus whose experience of the Lord was meant to confirm the experience of the others.
Like Mary, let us humbly and obediently fulfill our roles for we are all members of the One Body of Christ, the Church, and her health depends on our proper functioning in coordination with all the other members of the same Body!
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