“[The angels] asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?’ ‘They have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where they put Him.’ At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but
she did not realize that it was Jesus. ‘Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?’ Thinking He was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned toward Him and
cried out in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni’ [Teacher]” (John 20:14-16)
[Today our] thoughts go to that enigmatic woman who had been blessed by God to be first to face the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Reading slowly the passage above, we are able to bond with her emotions and enter her soul in transition from the deepest sadness to the euphoria of happiness.
The two angels asked why she was crying. Maybe they didn’t really know. After all, they are not human, and they might not understand a woman’s sorrow. Or perhaps they can see what she didn’t—that Jesus was standing behind her. Funny the way different people respond to a comment when they are grieving. Later on the same day when Jesus approached the two going to Emmaus and He asked why they were downcast, they gave him a surly reply: “Are you the only one in Jerusalem unaware of what happened?” (Luke 24:18) But Mary Magdalene, despite her anguish, responded politely.
She might have ignored them. She may even have accused them: “Have you taken my Lord away?” She had come to mourn over His corpse. Something very human and touching is expressed here—the need for mourning. Nowadays with the clamor for expedited funerals and even cremations, it seems that this emotion is not as powerful as it once was. The evangelist St. John wrote that while Mary Magdalene had been first to discover the tomb empty and ran to fetch St. Peter and him, the two apostles went away to reflect on the phenomenon, but she “hung around,” as we would say. Rather, she returned.
How foolish was western Christianity to brand her a prostitute. Orthodox Christianity never considered her a prostitute but always held her in highest regard. Conversely, modern feminists try to give her a role higher than the scriptures. They would affirm the silliness of The Da Vinci Code or marrying her to Jesus Christ, or include her among the twelve apostles. She was neither.
Her role in Christian tradition was unique and glorious. Cured from “seven demons” of whatever psychological or psychosomatic suffering with which she had been afflicted, she devoted herself to Christ throughout His ministry, even through the agony of watching Him suffer, die on the cross, and be buried. The evangelist with his discerning eye and compassionate heart allows us to share her overwhelming emotions on that first day of a new birth for the universe when she demonstrated for us what is implied in following Jesus Christ on the Way.
Mary Magdalene is a role model for us all, male and female, teaching us that the best way to deal with grief is to go through the agony and face whatever lies ahead. To overcome the instinct to run away, or to go inward and dwell in darkness are not the ways of dealing with the matter. It’s only prolonging the misery. The courageous never balk at cross bearing.
~Adapted from the Very Rev. Vladimir Berzonsky, “Marvelous, Mysterious Magdalen, http://oca.org/reflections/berzonsky/marvelous-mysterious-magdalene.
