GOSPEL POWER l JULY 22, 2022 - FRIDAY

Saint Mary Magdalene Apostle to the Apostles

Gospel: Jn 20:1-2, 11-18 

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” … 11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

The male-dominated world of first-century Palestine was totally unprepared for how God revealed the most wondrous divine act in history — the raising of Jesus from the dead. Just as God chose lowly shepherds to be the first hearers of the news of his Son’s birth, so now God chooses a woman to be the first witness and announcer of his resurrection. In doing so, God turns upside down the prevailing prejudice against the validity and reliability of the testimony of women. Again, God turns upside down the masculine bias in early Christianity, that reserved the title “apostle” to the mandated male disciples of Jesus. From the twelfth century onward, Mary Magdalene has been honored as the “apostle to the apostles,” the one sent by the risen Christ to announce to his apostles the good news of his resurrection.

 Lord Jesus, sharpen our attention to the way God reverses the world’s unjust standards, that we may look to the future with renewed hope. Amen.