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| Our Blessed Mother Mary is the most important woman in the Bible |
In contrast, Fr. John Gerhard, SJ, cites that Mary Magdalen’s name was listed last among the 4 women present at the Crucifixion (John 19:25), and presents strong biblical evidence that the Blessed Mother, not Mary Magdalen, was the first person to whom Jesus appeared upon His Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
In John 19:25, Mary Magdalen is listed LAST among the 4 women present at the Crucifixion, the Blessed Mother being mentioned FIRST. In addition, it seems anomalous that if Mary Magdalen is so central a figure and such an enormous influence on women, she was mentioned, taking all four Gospels into account, only one solitary time before the Crucifixion. The one mention is in Luke 8:1-3 where she is described merely as a woman "out of whom seven devils were gone forth" and who, with other women of wealth, "supported Jesus' endeavors".
It was the Blessed Mother who was the only woman cited by name as present in the first community of disciples at Pentecost (Acts 1:14). Therefore it seems that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is the main woman in the Gospels, and the one women should consider a "leader", not Mary Magdalen, as liberal Catholic and protestant scholars insist.
In addition, considering all the women named Mary in the Garden of the Resurrection referenced (in English, but not the original Greek) as she, she and she, and her, her and her, that the Blessed Mother was one of them and was the first to see the Resurrected Christ. This is as in Mark 8:22-26 where he and he, and him and him referring to Jesus and the blind man, one has to read closely to differentiate between the two.
If people would read the Greek and study Jesuit Fr John J Gerhard's book "The Miraculous Parallelisms of John", they would see that Jesus told "Mary" to go to the BRETHREN.
Instead, "Mary" goes to the DISCIPLES, two distinct groups (see John 2:12). Would Mary Magdalen have been disobedient to Jesus? No, Mary Magdalen never would have been disobedient. She DID go to the disciples, but it was not Jesus Who sent her. It was the Blessed Mother who sent Mary Magdalen to the DISCIPLES while it was Jesus who sent His Mother to the BRETHERN, the disciples and brethren being two distinctly different groups. The first person to see the Risen Christ was HIS MOTHER.
The chronology of the scene at the empty tomb, the most action packed scene in the Bible, is thus:
1) The Blessed Mother and a few other "Marys" were already at the tomb when Mary Magdalen arrived.
2) The Blessed Mother gives Magdalen a message to relate to the apostles, namely: "They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we do not know where they have laid Him."
3) Magdalen immediately goes to the home of Simon Peter and to the home of John to give them the message that she received from the Blessed Mother.
5) Meanwhile the Blessed Mother remains at the tomb and is engaged in a conversation with two angels.
6) She turns around to see Jesus but does not immediately recognize Him. As she begins to recognize Him, He addresses her as "Woman" which is the same name Adam used for Eve in Genesis 2:23.
(7) Jesus then addresses the Blessed Mother as "Mary", using her proper name, as Adam addressed Eve using her proper name in Genesis 3:20. Thus Jesus crowns the Blessed Mother as the New Eve, NOT Mary Magdalen.
8) The Blessed Mother recognizes Him, and rushes to Him, but He says, "Do not continue to cling to Me for I am not yet ascended to My Father, but go to the BRETHREN, and say to them, 'I am ascending unto My Father and your Father, to My God and to your God.'" By requesting the Blessed Mother to deliver His words verbatim, Jesus was putting into her mouth the exact words which would foretell her own subsequent Assumption.
9) Magdalene returns, recognizes Jesus and says, "Rabboni". She then leaves the scene again to go to the disciples to tell them that she had seen the Lord and to relate to them what Jesus had said to the Blessed Mother.
10) All the women then leave the scene at the tomb before Peter and John arrive.
To be continued...
I have a problem with this, Susan. The Blessed Mother knew Jesus was going to rise. She had no doubts. Why would she have been at the tomb? She knew Jesus wouldn't be there.
ReplyDeleteAnd why would she ever say something like, "They've taken his body away." That implies that, like the apostles who sinned in their lack of faith (Hence Jesus breathing on them and forgiving them when he appeared in the upper room Easter night), Mary also lacked faith. That cannot be.
The Blessed Mother was not the "Mary" who said that. The woman who said, "They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid him," was "the woman returning".
ReplyDeleteIn the Greek two women are referred to as "ekeine" which means "this other woman" and "dokousa" means "thinking erroneously". This first "other woman" mistakenly/erroneously thinks Jesus is the gardener. (John 20:15b)
The second "other woman" is referred to in the Greek as "woman returning" who is Mary Magdalen who "went away" in John 20:2 and is returning.
As for the Blessed Mother knowing Jesus would rise...what better place for her to be but at the tomb because that's where he rose and exactly where He was. That's where the Resurrection took place. Why would she think He wouldn't be there? He was there. In the Garden of the Resurrection. Just outside the tomb.
Also please note that the editors of the New American Bible with revised New Testament (NABRNT) in the printing of 1999 presents the title, "The Appearance of Mary of Magdala" for John 20:11-17 as helpful for the Catholic faithful's contemplation of what C.H. Dodd called "the greatest scene in ancient literature." Note that the NABRNT title superimposed over their own translation suggests that Mary Magdala was the sole "Mary" at the empty tomb even though John 20:2 says "we".