Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Lễ kính Thánh nữ Maria Mađalêna

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Tư- Lễ kính Thánh nữ Maria Mađalêna

Hôm nay chúng ta mừng lễ Thánh nữ Maria Mađalêna, một người phụ nữ không những chỉ là một đệ tử trung thành và thân tín Chúa Kitô mà còn là một người thật sự yêu kính Chúa Giêsu. Đáng tiếc thay là trong thời chúng ta đang sống hôm nay, nhiều người trong chúng ta có lẽ lo ngại hay có sự nghi ngờ về ba Maria Mađalêna. Nhiều người trong chúng ta cảm thấy khó chịu trong sự thân mật mà cô đã dành cho Chúa Giêsu. Trong bài đọc Tin Mừng hôm nay, Thánh Gioan mô tả những cuộc gặp gỡ của bà với Chúa Giêsu có vẻ như thân thiện hơn nhiều so với sự thân mật bình thường. Vì thế nó không giúp ích cho Maria Mađalên khi bà đã bị người khác nhầm lẫn và miêu tả bà ở trong phim trường Hollywood như là một người tình bất hợp pháp của Chúa Giêsu hay là một cô gái đã từng làm nghề mại dâm (mà cô thực sự là không phải thế..vì có rất nhiều Maria trong những bài Tin Mừng.)

Trong suốt các bài Tin Mừng, Bà Maria Mađalêna đã phải tranh đấu với những khó khăn và sự sỉ nhục, đau thương. Bà cũng bị quỷ ám và cũng bị mọi người thân cận bỏ rơi trước khi Chúa Giêsu trừ quỷ và chữa khỏi bà. Và bà cũng chính mắt chứng kiến cái cái Chết cực hình của người bạn thân thương nhất của bà là Chúa Giêsu đã chết trên thập tự giá. Tóm lại, trong thời gian của bà và cho đến ngày nay, chúng ta đã không chịu để cho Maria Mađalêna có được nhiều thời gian nghỉ ngơi. Ngoại trừ Đức Giêsu, Đấng đã làm.

Chúa Giêsu là người bạn thật chân tình của bà trong tất cả các bạn. Ngài không những chỉ chữa cho bà được khỏi bệnh, nhưng cũng giảng dạy riêng cho bà về Nước Trời nữa mặc dù những người khác phàn nàn và khiếu nại, Để đáp lại, bà Maria Mađalên đã hiến dâng cho Chúa tất cả, Bà đã đầu hàng tầt cả những gì mà bà có và hàng ao ước để lắng nghe và sống trưởng thành với đức tin của mình trong Chúa Giê-su. Vì thế tứ đó đến nay, không ai có thể ngạc nhiên là bà đã trở thành một trong những môn đệ trung thành nhất c, tốt nhất của Chúa.

Bà Maria Mađalên là một mô hình của đức tin và tình bạn hữu của Chúa cho chúng ta. Đối mặt với những sự phản kháng và tâm lý tiêu cực mà chúng ta thường gặp mỗi ngày trong cuộc sống hôm nay, chúng ta thực sự có thể sử dụng những ví dụ và cuộc sống của bà Maria Mađalêna và áp dụng trong mối quan hệ cá nhân của chúng ta với Chúa.

REFLECTION

Today we remember St. Mary Magdalene, a woman who not only was a loyal and faithful disciple of Christ but also a person who truly loved Jesus.It is unfortunate that in our present day, many of us are apprehensive or suspicious of Mary Magdalene. Many of us find discomfort in the intimacy she had with Jesus. In today's gospel reading, St. John's description of the meeting of Mary and Jesus may seem more than friendly than it is joyful. It doesn't help that Mary Magdalene has been mistakenly portrayed in Hollywood as an illegitimate lover of Jesus or as an ex-prostitute (which she really wasn't).Mary Magdalene throughout the Gospels contended with difficulties and traumas. She was possessed of demons and likely an outcast before Jesus cured her. And she watched her friend Jesus die on the cross. In short, during her time and up to the present, we haven't been giving Mary Magdalene much of a break. Except Jesus who did.Jesus was her one true friend throughout it all. He not only cured her, but also taught to her, and stuck with her despite the complaints of others. In response, Mary gave her all to listen to and grow her faith with Jesus hence it comes as no surprise she became one of His most faithful disciples and best of friend.Mary Magdalene is a model of faith and friendship. In the face of antagonism and negative sentiment, which we often experience today, we could really use her example in our own personal relationship with the Lord "Lord, may I never fail to recognize your voice nor lose sight of your presence in your saving word."

July 22, 2021-Saint Mary Magdalene

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, grant me a heart that seeks to encounter you, and in finding you, desires to share you with others.

Encountering Christ:

1. The Long Wait: How eager Mary Magdalene must have been early Sunday morning to go in search of her rabboni, if only to see him one last time and finish the preparations of his burial. Imagine her long wait. How does your own heart long to encounter the Lord? At the first possible moment, when Sabbath finally was officially over, she set out in search of him. To her dismay, her hope was not immediately satisfied. He was nowhere to be found. But Jesus did not disappoint. He saw her longing heart and answered the prayer expressed in her desires. Do we trust that Jesus also answers the deepest longings of our hearts, when they are centered on what is essential—to encounter our living God?

2. Stop Clinging to Me: Unsurprisingly, Mary clung to Jesus as soon as she realized who stood before her. Yet Jesus had other plans. Perhaps her faith was to be further purified, making her already-converted heart even more beautiful. Jesus helped her to realize how she would relate to her God now: “I am going to my Father and to your Father.” She would no longer cling to Jesus in the human way she desired before. She would discover her identity as a daughter, called by the Son, to be a beloved child of a heavenly Father. While she might not understand this immediately, her love for Jesus was bolstered in trust as she came to a deeper awareness of his plan. In our life, are we willing to wait patiently for understanding, and to trust that Jesus has a greater plan for us, beyond what we immediately grasp and cling to?

3. “I Have Seen the Lord”: With Mary’s new identity came a new mission: “Go to my brothers and tell them…” With what promptness she took on this mission! She was sent and did not hold back. She went to the leaders of the pack. Without doubt, she was the Apostle to the Apostles, as tradition states. Neither the Apostles’ status, nor their opinions, deterred her from sharing the good news. And me? Does my heart leap to share the good news wherever and whenever the Spirit prompts me?

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, help me to know more fully my identity as a beloved child of a heavenly Father. From this identity, grant me the courage to witness your victory over sin and death.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will reflect on how I can be an apostle to those around me, as Mary Magdalene was.

Reflection

Today, we celebrate with joy Saint Mary Magdalene. With joy and benefit for our faith!, because her trail could very well be ours. Magdalene came from afar (cf. Luke 7: 36-50) and she did go very far... Indeed, at the dawn of That morning, Jesus Christ discovered her the most important fact of our faith: that she was also God’s daughter.

In Mary of Magdala’s itinerary, we discover some important aspects of our faith. In the first place, we admire her courage. Though a gift from God, faith requires courage from the believer. Generally, we tend towards what we can see, what can be seized with our hand. God being essentially invisible, faith “represents the risky enterprise of accepting what plainly cannot be seen as the truly real and fundamental. It involves a leap out of the tangible world” (Benedict XVI). Mary, by seeing the risen Christ can also "see" the Father, the Lord. On the other hand, the "leap to faith" «is reached through what the Bible calls conversion or repentance: only he who changes receives it "(Benedict XVI). Was not this Mary’s first step? Should not this also be a reiterated step in our lives?

In the conversion of Magdalene, there was much love: she did not spare any perfumes for her Love. Love!: here is another "vehicle" of faith, because we neither hear, nor see or believe whom we do not love. In John’s Gospel it clearly appears «believing is to listen and, at the same time, to see (...)». In that dawn, María Magdalena takes risks for her Love, she listens to her Love (to hear Him saying "Mary" is enough for her to recognize Him) and she meets the Father. «On the morning of Easter (...), María Magdalena, is asked to contemplate Him as He ascends to the Father, and finally to her full confession "I have seen the Lord" (Jn 20:18)» (Pope Francis).

Reflection

Today, we celebrate the festivity of St. Mary Magdalene. Youngsters usually get crazy over a movie to the point of identifying themselves with some of the characters there. We, Christians, should always be young at heart before the life of Jesus of Nazareth, and identify ourselves with this great woman, Mary of Magdala, whom the Gospel speaks to us about. She followed Jesus' path, she listened to his Word, and Christ reciprocated her by granting her the historic privilege of being the person whom Christ's feat of resurrection was first communicated to.

The evangelist says that, initially, she did not recognize him. And she took him for the gardener. But when the Lord calls her by her name: «Mary», maybe because of the peculiar way to say it, this saint woman did not doubt anymore: «She turned and said to him, ‘Rabboni’ —which means, “Master”—» (Jn 20:16). After this first meeting with Jesus, she was the first one to run out to announce it to the other disciples: «So Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord, and this is what he said to me’» (Jn 20:18).

Christians that, in their daily life programs, care about his relationship with Christ in the Eucharist by devoting a few instants to contemplative praying and cultivating the assiduous reading of Jesus' Gospels, will also have the privilege of hearing that personal call from the Lord. It is the same Christ who personally calls us by our name and encourages us to follow the steady path to saintliness.

«Prayer is conversation and dialogue with God: contemplation for absent-minded, certainty of what we are expecting, equal basis of honor with angels, progress and increase of goods, remission of sins, remedy for all ills, fruit of current goods and, guarantee for future goods» (St. Gregory of Nyssa).

Let us tell the Lord: —Jesus, make my friendship with you so strong and profound that, as Mary of Magdala, we know how to recognize you in my life.

Meditation: "I have seen the Lord!"

Do you recognize the presence and reality of the Lord Jesus in your life? How easy it is to miss the Lord when our focus is on ourselves! Mary Magdalene did not at first recognize the Lord Jesus after he had risen from the grave because her focus was on the empty tomb and on her own grief. It took only one word from the Master, when he called her by name, for Mary to recognize him.

Recognizing the Lord's presence in our lives

Mary's message to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, is the very essence of Christianity. It is not enough that every Christian know something about the Lord, but that each one of us know him personally and intimately. It is not enough to argue about him, but that we meet him. Through the power of his resurrection we can encounter the living Lord who loves us personally and shares his glory with us.

The Lord Jesus gives us "eyes of faith" to see the truth of his resurrection and his victory over sin and death (Ephesians 1:18). The resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of our hope - the hope that we will see God face to face and share in his everlasting glory and joy.

Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:8-9).

Do you recognize the Lord's presence with you, in his word, in the "breaking of the bread", and in his church, the body of Christ?

"Lord Jesus, may I never fail to recognize your voice nor lose sight of your presence in your saving word."

Meditation: John 20:1-2, 11-18 Saint Mary Magdalene (Memorial)

Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark. (John 20:1)

Few women in Scripture have been the subject of as much speculation and scrutiny as Mary Magdalene, whose feast we celebrate today. Yet despite all this attention, popular culture still confuses her with the penitent “sinful woman” in Luke 7:36-50. But rather than being remembered for repentance, contrition, and sinfulness, Mary should stand out in our minds as a model of faithfulness.

Mary had good reason to be faithful to Jesus. He had driven seven demons out of her (Luke 8:1-2). This was most likely the beginning of her journey with him, and it set her on a path of discipleship, a path that led her to become one of the foremost women who followed him. As one of a group of women who supported Jesus financially, Mary was no mere camp follower. She believed enough in him that she was willing to back it up with her money and to leave behind a comfortable life in order to walk with the Master.

Imagine the miracles Mary must have witnessed and the excitement she must have felt on this journey! But it wasn’t all signs and wonders. It was a difficult path as well, a path that led her to the foot of the cross, where she watched Jesus die an agonizing death. Mourning and confused, Mary must have felt like a ship adrift. “What now?” she must have asked.

Here is where we see Mary’s faithfulness and love most clearly. Rejecting the urge to flee and to distance herself from Jesus’ disciples, she was one of just a few people to stay with him as he was buried. She was one of the three women who risked arrest just to anoint his body. And in the end, her loyalty was rewarded: she was the first person in history to see the risen Lord!

What an honor! Rightly does Mary deserve the title “Apostle to the Apostles.” One of the greatest women in the Bible, her story is an example of the closeness with God that rewards a grateful, faithful heart that pursues him ardently. “Lord, thank you for the example of Mary Magdalene and her life. Help me to emulate her love and devotion.”