Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene

Lectionary: 603

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."

Jesus responded to the Pharisees and scribes when they asked why he and his disciples did not fast, 

“Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.”

Those days came unexpectedly, like masked thieves in the night, to Mary Magdalene and the Lord's disciples. Suddenly, the Lord was savagely taken from them. He was tried, scourged, mocked in his helplessness, and hanged on a cross for hours until he died. His shocked, horrified followers were left with nothing. They'd abandoned their homes, families, and careers to follow the Lord. 

They'd been convinced and they had believed with all their hearts that he was the One, the long-awaited and divinely promised Messiah. He had given every sign and proof of that, and his teachings were both prophetic and messianic. There could be no doubt, and they had no doubt for every doubter had long departed. He was the One! 

But he was dead. They'd been permitted to bury him. They had nothing left but a tomb and their grief. 

And now Mary Magdalene was crying hysterically that "they" -- someone -- had taken his body! Why? Where? When? Who would do such a thing? And what's the point of it? Could they not leave well enough alone? He was dead, for God's sake. What else can they want from his tortured, disfigured body? 

it made no sense but the tomb was empty. When Mary broke the news, Peter and John ran to the graveyard to find it was true. The unthinkable had happened. But why? 

Our grief has no bounds. They won't even let us visit his grave. He is like the millions who disappeared in Stalin's Russia, and Argentina's dirty war. They went to work and never came home. The police were no help, and the bereft dared not ask the police for their help. Every association with the missing was also suspect and might disappear. Don't ask. Don't grieve. They never existed. They never were. Their children should be silent. They're spanked until they learn not to ask. No funeral. No memorial. No memories; no mementos. No nothing. 

The feast of Saint Mary Magdalene is a very happy occasion, but it is good to pause for a moment and remember the depth of her sorrow, and the sorrow of all his disciples, both men and women. Their grief continues as our wars continue, as repression of truth-speakers deepens throughout the world. The truth becomes illegal in our schools, hospitals, and public discussion. It is ignored in the courtroom and flouted in political speeches. 

And so we fast and do penance. We cannot eat; we have no appetite. We will neither eat nor drink until...

        "...the day when I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father.” (Mt 26:29)