July 22, 2025
Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene
Lectionary: 603
Reading 1
The Bride says:
On my bed at night I sought him
whom my heart loves–
I sought him but I did not find him.
I will rise then and go about the city;
in the streets and crossings I will seek
Him whom my heart loves.
I sought him but I did not find him.
The watchmen came upon me,
as they made their rounds of the city:
Have you seen him whom my heart loves?
I had hardly left them
when I found him whom my heart loves.
OR
Brothers and sisters:
The love of Christ impels us,
once we have come to the conviction that one died for all;
therefore, all have died.
He indeed died for all,
so that those who live might no longer live for themselves
but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh;
even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh,
yet now we know him so no longer.
So whoever is in Christ is a new creation:
the old things have passed away;
behold, new things have come.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (2) My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
O God, you are my God whom I seek;
for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts
like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary
to see your power and your glory,
For your kindness is a greater good than life;
my lips shall glorify you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus will I bless you while I live;
lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name.
As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied,
and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
You are my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.
My soul clings fast to you;
your right hand upholds me.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Tell us, Mary, what did you see on the way?
I saw the glory of the risen Christ, I saw his empty tomb.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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."
Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb
and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet
where the Body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?"
She said to them, "They have taken my Lord,
and I don't know where they laid him."
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?"
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
"Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him."
Jesus said to her, "Mary!"
She turned and said to him in Hebrew,
"Rabbouni," which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her,
"Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
But go to my brothers and tell them,
'I am going to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.'"
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,
"I have seen the Lord,"
and then reported what he told her.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072225.cfm
Commentary on Song
of Songs 3:1-4 or 2 Corinthians 5:14-17; John 20:1-2,11-18
The Gospel reading, from John, describes the encounter of
Mary Magdalene with the Risen Jesus. We are told that Mary went to the tomb
early on Sunday morning, “while it was still dark”. The darkness not only
indicates that it was before sunrise, but also expresses the feelings in Mary’s
heart. She had lost her beloved Master and was in deep mourning for him.
She saw that the large stone guarding the entrance to the
tomb had been removed and she was very upset. So she ran back to tell Peter and
the Beloved Disciple:
They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not
know where they have laid him.
The use of “we” suggests that there were, as the other
Gospels indicate, other women with Mary, but they are not mentioned by John.
Peter and the Beloved Disciple then run to the tomb to
verify the women’s report. They see the empty tomb and the burial cloths, but
it is only the Beloved Disciple who sees the significance of their arrangement
and believes that the women’s report that Jesus is risen is, in fact, true.
They then go back to report to the larger group and Mary
Magdalene is left alone outside the tomb. Still weeping, she looks into the
tomb and sees two angels inside, one at the head and one at the foot of where
Jesus had been. They ask her why she is weeping. The word “weeping” is used
three times, indicating the depth of her grief. She tells the angels:
They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where
they have laid him.
It is not clear who the “they” might be.
Just then, she turns round and sees Jesus there, except that
she does not recognise him—a common feature of all the resurrection stories. He
asks her:
Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?
She thinks he must be the gardener. This was not surprising,
as we had been told a little earlier (John 19:41) that Jesus’ tomb was in a
garden. There is some Johannine irony here. At the very beginning, death had
come to the human race in a garden, the Garden of Eden, where Adam and his wife
had disobeyed Yahweh. Now, life is coming back in another garden. And, of
course, Jesus is indeed the Gardener.
It is then that Jesus addresses her: “Mary!” In speaking of
himself as the Good Shepherd, Jesus had said,
He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…and the
sheep follow him because they know his voice.
(John 10:3-4)
So here, Mary immediately recognises the voice of her
Master; she knows that it is Jesus who is calling her. And she turns. But, just
now, she had already turned to face him. This is a different turning—it is an
interior turning to her Lord.
Jesus then tells her to stop clinging to him. She thinks she
is clinging to the Jesus she knew before. But this is the Risen Jesus, already
on the way to be united to his Father. From now on she will have to find him in
a very different way, in her brothers and sisters. So, she is told to go and
tell the other disciples that Jesus is on his way to the Father, to his God and
their God.
So Mary goes off to tell the disciples the exciting news:
I have seen the Lord!
In many ways, Mary Magdalene can be called a Beloved
Disciple. No one shows a stronger love for Jesus than this woman who had been
liberated from a seriously disturbed life. She was there with Jesus’ Mother and
some other women at the foot of the cross keeping vigil, while not one of the
men disciples was to be seen. After Jesus was buried, she kept vigil by his
tomb. Early on Sunday morning, she was there again when the tomb was discovered
to be empty. After the visit of Peter and the Beloved Disciple, she alone
stayed on to mourn.
In this Gospel, she is the very first person to whom the
Risen Jesus reveals himself. And she is the very first of his followers to
announce the resurrection of the Lord. This gives her a unique place in the
Gospel story.
There is a choice of two First Readings. The first is from
the Song of Songs and expresses the lover’s distress at the loss of the one she
loves and then her joy at finding him:
I sought him but found him not…The sentinels found
me…Have you seen him whom my soul loves?
Just then, she comes across him:
Scarcely had I passed them,
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him and would not let him go…
The similarity with the Gospel story is very close.
The alternative First Reading is from the Second Letter to
the Corinthians. In it, Paul says:
…the love of Christ urges us on…
It was this love that drove Mary Magdalene. And it speaks of
a new relationship with Christ:
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human
point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we
no longer know him in that way.
This was what Mary Magdalene had to learn. She could no
longer cling to the Christ she had known earlier. The Christ we know now is to
be found in every person and in every experience of our life. It is there that
he is to be loved and served. We will ask Mary Magdalene to help us know Jesus
better.
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https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/f0722r/
Tuesday,
July 22, 2025
Feast of St. Mary Magdalene
Opening Prayer
Lord, be
merciful to Your people. Fill us with Your gifts and make us always eager to
serve You in faith, hope and love.
You live and reign with the
Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - John 20: 1-2, 11-18
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."
Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the
tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the
feet where the Body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, "Woman, why
are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken my Lord, and I
don't know where they laid him." When she had said this, she turned around
and saw Jesus there but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her,
"Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" She thought
it was the gardener and said to him, "Sir, if you carried him away, tell
me where you laid him, and I will take him." Jesus said to her,
"Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni," which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her, "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to
the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and
your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced
to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and then reported what he
told her.
Reflection
The Gospel today presents
the appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene, whose feast we celebrate today. The
death of Jesus, her great friend, makes her lose the sense of life, but she
does not cease to look for Him. She goes to the tomb to encounter anew the One
whom death had stolen. There are moments in life in which everything crumbles
down. It seems that everything has come to an end. Death, disasters, pain,
disillusionments, betrayals! There are so many things that can make us lose the
earth under our feet and produce in us a profound crisis, but something
different can also take place. Unexpectedly, the encounter with a friend can
give us back the sense of life and make us discover that love is stronger than
death and defeat. In the way in which the appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene
is described we distinguish the stages followed, from the painful seeking for
the dead friend to the encounter of the risen Lord. These are also the stages
that we all follow, along our life, seeking God and in living out the Gospel.
It is the process of death and of resurrection.
•
John 20: 1: Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb. There was
a profound love between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. She was one of the few people
who had the courage to remain with Jesus until the hour of His death on the
Cross. After the obligatory rest of the Sabbath, she returned to the tomb, to
be in the place where she had met the Beloved for the last time, but to her
great surprise, the tomb was empty!
•
John 20: 11-13: Mary Magdalene weeps but seeks. As she
wept, she stooped to look inside, and saw two angels in white sitting where the
body of Jesus had been, one at the head, the other at the feet. The angels
asked, “Why are you weeping?” Her response: “They have taken my Lord away, and
I do not know where they have put Him!” Mary Magdalene looks for the Jesus she
had known, the same one with whom she had lived for three years.
•
John 20: 14-15: Mary Magdalene speaks with Jesus
without recognizing Him; the disciples on the way to Emmaus saw Jesus, but they
did not recognize Him (Lk 24: 15- 16). The same thing happens to Mary
Magdalene. She sees Jesus but does not recognize Him. She thinks that He is the
gardener. Jesus also asks, as the angels had done, “Why are you weeping?” And
He adds, “Whom are you looking for?” Response: “If you have taken Him away,
tell me where you have put Him, and I will go and remove Him!” She is still
looking for the Jesus of the past, the same one of three days before. The image
of the past prevents her from recognizing the living Jesus, who is standing in
front of her.
•
John 20: 16: Mary Magdalene recognizes Jesus. Jesus
pronounces the name “Mary!” (Miriam). This is the sign of recognition: the same
voice, the same way of pronouncing the name. She answers “Master!” (Rabbouni). Jesus turns. The first
impression is that death has been only a painful accident on the way, but that
now everything has turned back as it was in the beginning. Mary embraces Jesus
intensely. He was the same Jesus who had died on the cross, the same one whom
she had known and loved. Here takes place what Jesus had said in the parable of
the Good Shepherd: “He calls His by name and they know His voice.” “I know My
sheep and My sheep know Me!” (Jn 10: 2,
4, 14).
•
John 20: 17: Mary Magdalene receives the mission to
announce the resurrection to the Apostles. In fact, it is the same Jesus, but
the way of being with her is not the same. Jesus tells her, “Do not cling to Me
because I have not yet ascended to the Father!” Jesus is going to be together
with the Father. Mary Magdalene should not cling to Him, but rather, she has to
assume her mission: “But go and find My brothers and tell them: I am ascending
to My Father and your Father.” He calls the disciples “My brothers.” Ascending
to the Father Jesus opens the way for us so that we can be close to God. “I want
them to be with Me where I am” (Jn 17: 24; 14: 3).
•
John 20: 18: The dignity and the mission of Magdalene
and of the women. Mary Magdalene is called the disciple of Jesus (Lk 8:1-2);
witness of His crucifixion (Mk 15: 40-41; Mt 27: 55-56; Jn 19: 25), of His
burial (Mk 15: 47; Lk 23: 55; Mt 27: 61), and of His resurrection (Mk 16: 1-8;
Mt 28: 1-10; Jn 20: 1, 11-18). Now she receives the order, she is ordered to go
to the Twelve and to announce to them that Jesus is alive. Without this Good
News of the Resurrection, the seven lamps of the Sacraments would extinguish
(Mt 28: 10; Jn 20: 17-18).
Personal Questions
•
Have you ever had an experience that has produced in
you an impression of loss and of death? What has given you new life and the
hope and joy of living?
•
Mary Magdalene looked for Jesus in a certain way and
found Him again in another way. How does this take place in our life today?
Concluding Prayer
God, You are my God, I pine
for You; My heart thirsts for You,
My body longs for You,
As a land parched, dreary
and waterless. (Ps 63: 1)
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