The Feast of Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles
Mary Magdalene! Today is her day, dear friends.
She radiates, yes. But what?
There are so many remarkable images of her, created throughout the ages. Images painted with pigment, images rendered in words, she catches the imagination.
But don't be confused. Yes, the images are beautiful. Yes, her story is compelling. Yet Mary Magdalene is not peering into a looking glass and shining with what she is seeing there. She sees the one who is God's radiance in flesh and blood. The story, her radiance, our experience--all are living within another.
Her gaze is on Jesus--healing and, in her, lifting humanity up. In that gaze, which mirrors the immense radiance of the One she loves, she goes beyond what seems possible for a woman of her time. In Jesus' feet-on-the-ground time on this planet, as he walks a life path that is unfathomable, Mary meets him. Transformed by his healing power, an outpouring of love, she returns that love, shares in providing for his needs, follows him as a disciple and receives the deep teaching of what God's love does in a life that let's Her in.
Mary Magdalene's vigil at the cross shatters her as she watches Jesus' tortured death. Believing all is lost--even his body, which she cannot find, Mary stays faithful through her grief, weeping at the tomb. Then she hears her name. She turns and takes it in She knows, for awhile, something no other human knows: that with Jesus the Christ, in death life is changed, not ended. He sends her to the other disciples, called apostles by the gospel. She proclaims the good news of his resurrection life and what is newly alive in her. She knows the truth. Christ is alive, and she is called to be the Apostle to the Apostles--whether they hear or refuse to hear.
The Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, among others that were pushed to the margins by what became the mainline church, tell of a woman on fire with Jesus, radiating the light and heat of that fire--the fire of unstoppable love--and inviting others to encounter life with him. A life that will offer and require more and more until we offer it all, it opens into territory that we cannot foresee. We must not seek to impose our limitations on it, even as our limitations will make themselves known, sometimes mightily.
The promise is that the Holy One will act and work through our weaknesses, the messes we create, the woundings we visit on one another. Love will grow in us through receiving the joys, surfing the turmoil, and accepting the griefs and challenges that are part of being human. God will work through it all and transform it all, as surely as S/He called Mary Magdalene from her life of brokenness to a life exceeding her expectations and what was expected of her as a woman of her time.
The promise is that absolutely everything will be made new through our encounter with the Truly Human One, the One that refuses to be swayed by any agenda that doesn't coincide with the will of God. He walks the way that opens before him with faith and trust, and very human trepidation, before his final YES! to live through and beyond death. Jesus invites us to do the same.
Six years ago Shane Phelan, CMA, and I, "E" Broyles, CMA invited--compelled?--by our encounters with Jesus, and accompanied by Mary Magdalene, made life vows to surrender (as much as we can!) to the transforming power of the Risen Christ in the Companions of Mary the Apostle. We remember that day with awe and wonder. And we give glory to God, and thanks to Mary Magdalene--and all of you who have been companions on the way. From her we learn to go with Jesus beyond our expectations, feel and let go of fears, and allow the Holy One to take us into a territory with a "ready or not, here I go," approach that is possible only when powered by Divine Love.
That day we joked about "Leaping off a cliff into the loving arms of Jesus." That is an aspect of what it felt like. With Mary Magdalene we learned that we never leap alone, actually. This mystery was transformed for me this week. I saw that we weren't actually leaping into the loving arms of Jesus at all. We are clasping his hand and he holds ours. Mary comes with us as we all leap into the mystery that life devoted to walking God's way always is. It is revealed to us, usually a bit at a time. Could we really take full revelation of what life will hold and what God will do all at once?! I think not. The step-by-step "Trusting in the slow work of God," as Teillard deChardin says, is the way. The leap is only the beginning. And we give "glory to God whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine."
I am deeply grateful for this life in and with Christ and Mary Magdalene. I am grateful for my own, quirky walk as a monastic as my life is knit together with so many remarkable journeyers who are radiant with Christ and faithful leapers. I am deeply grateful for the slow work of God in me, and in this creation that she so deeply loves.
And I am grateful for the hope and trust--given me--that the promise of abundant life for all--a life of flourishing, peace, love, inclusion and self offering--is for NOW. It is not some far off, future time or place, but in the present moment that God lifts us up and reveals a mystery. The reign of God is always here, interpenetrating much that is murky at best, and given over to evil at worst. Despite our differences, our fears, our failures, we are One and, in Christ Jesus, the radiance of God shines as we are empowered to live, love and be companions together on this wild, woolly way, one day at a time.
Thank you for accompanying us. May Christ's radiance shine through you--through us each and all--as we become more and more who and what we are created to be. May the example of Mary Magdalene egg us on and encourage us as we celebrate her today, and allow her to clasp our hands as we walk and wobble, stumble and leap into ever new LIFE in Christ with each other.
with Love in the Christ,
Elizabeth