She has always spoken to my heart:
Mary Magdalene
A homily,
Peter Menkin, Obl Cam OSB
Church of Our Saviour (Episcopal)
Mill Valley, CA USA
Wednesday Eucharist, July 22, 2009
Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 1994

Judith 9:1, 11-14
2 Corinthians 5: 14-18
John 20: 11-18
Psalm 42: 1-7


In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

So many have said of Mary Magdalene, of her story with Jesus and her transformation through faith: “She has always spoken to my heart.”

So frequently, the merit and worth of Mary Magdalene has been her controversy in the Church. That is the popular conception. After all, how widely spread is the belief she was married to Jesus. An unlikely reality, by most Biblical and Gospel measure: One sermon writer says:


“Books have appeared which suggest Jesus and Mary were lovers or even married. This is easily disproved: if Jesus and Mary had been married, then St Luke would have mentioned the fact…"

A note on Jesus' celibacy: I doubt he was interested in marrying and raising children. Though Jesus did have sexual feelings, he was celibate. The love between the two was of the kind that brings a woman, who is friend of Jesus Christ, to wait with his mother Mary at the foot of the Cross. This is the love of a woman. This is a deep, abiding love for the person and divine person of Jesus Christ. This is Holy love.

My sense of Mary is based on her courage, her independence, her willingness to love passionately. One result I admire and believe of this sainted woman, disciple of Christ, is how transformation and redemption, reconciliation and renewal came to this woman of the Bible.

The Apostle to the Apostles is Mary in spirit as was Mary Magdalene in life. She took a journey, went the Way of Jesus.

This is miraculous and telling of the Way of Jesus, her experience and faith: The fact that seven devils had been cast out of her gives us all hope. Hers is one of transformation and freedom in relationship to faith and Jesus Christ.

For I, too, have experienced transformation in my life. I, too, have been released in a freedom of spirit through Jesus. Her life is a fascination and inspiration regarding the power of the Christian faith, the illuminating power of the Gospel, and simply that of a life of miscast values or even that of a lost person reformed. Re-formed meaning one has been formed in a spiritual and psychic sense through faith-- through Faith that is a healing balm.

History really tells us little of Mary Magdalene. The Gospel of John in its first chapter says: "The Word (God's living self-utterance and self-bestowal) became flesh, and dwelt among us."

This is a woman of courage, for she went to his tomb alone.

There she received a call, a vocation as disciple to bring the word of Jesus’ resurrection to mankind, to follow in the Way. It is liberation of the heart. It is liberation in history of man and woman kind. May I say liberation of the world and cosmos? The Christ event.

The passage where Mary is commissioned reads:

Jesus 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? Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni” (which means Teacher). Jesus 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.”

Following this commissioning, Mary Magdalene rushed to the disciples, saying, “I have seen the Lord”, and she told them that he had said these things to her.

I present the Psalm portion of our reading this Feast Day of Saint Mary Magdalene. This part of Psalm 42 speaks of her passion, and need for Jesus. This part of Psalm 42 speaks of her holiness. Mostly, it speaks to all of us of the human yearning for God. Is it not part of the light and spirit of the Lord that graces humankind with this capacity?


In a moment, I’ll quote it. I am sure it will resonate with you. Mary, a reputedly wealthy woman of business and travel somehow met Jesus on her trips. It was something that stirred her. Call this the mystical call.

From the Psalm:
As a deer longs for the flowing streams, /so my soul longs for you, O God, /for the living God. /When shall I come and behold /the face of God? /My tears have been my food and drink /day and night…

Her passion shows again in tears and love when she washes Jesus’ feet with her hair. This same powerful force within her led her to the tomb. There Mary was “graced with a visitation and ignited with a vocation. The visitation occurred at the bleakest period of her life. Bereaved of her Lord and grief-soaked as well, she had planned only to care for a corpse -- when it happened: a visitation from the One who called her by name and then commissioned her to a service—service from which she would never shrink and of which she would never be ashamed.” That’s how one writer puts it. How eloquent and elegant Mary Magdalene is and are these words I’ve borrowed from Victor Shepherd, noted preacher.


Why Mary, a wealthy woman of worldly sophistication to receive this vocation?

Mary was a poor woman in spirit. She had need of Jesus, and Jesus cares for such and calls them. Our reading in the Apocrypha tells us:

“For your strength does not depend on numbers, nor your might on the powerful. But you are the God of the lowly, helper of the oppressed, upholder of the weak, protector of the forsaken, savior of those without hope.”
That says it.

And this, too, says it… as Jesus said of Mary Magdalene:


She hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head…this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet…

Do we not love Mary Magdalene? She is so alive and real. It is Gospel, so alive and real:


The love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.

Mary Magdalene became “the righteousness of God.”


As today’s Collect for this major Feast Day reads in part of this personal and community Christ event for Mary Magdalene:

Almighty God, whose blessed son restored Mary Magdalene to health of body and of mind, and called her to be a witness of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by your grace we may be healed from all our infirmities and know you in the power of his unending life…


Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

Amen.


Audio of Homily as given at Church of Our Saviour, Mill Valley, CA USA:

“…[F]or I was hungry and you gave me food…
(Matthew 25: 35)

Elizabeth of Hungary
Peter Menkin, Obl Cam OSB

Church of Our Saviour (Episcopal)
Mill Valley, CA USA
November 19, 2008

Tobit 12:6b-9
Matthew 25: 31-40


In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

As one report of Elizabeth of Hungary’s good works, “During a famine she generously distributed all the grain from her stocks, cared for lepers in one of the hospitals she established, kissed their hands and feet. For the benefit of the indigent she provided suitable lodging.”

This Holy woman, whose Feast Day is today in the Episcopal Church, was a remarkable woman of religious faith, relationship to God in Christ, and someone who in her exemplary Christian life helped the poor, the widow, the misbegotten.

Our reading from Matthew in the Gospel this day accurately provides an insight into her character and Christ-like living. Note that this stalwart woman who had remarkable endurance in faith, lived in the 13th Century and died at the early age of 24.

Some words from Matthew, telling of Christ’s teachings:

“…[F]or I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” That from Matthew 25: 35-36.

Married at 14 to royalty, husband dead at 20, Elizabeth had already begun her work with the poor and needy. Her husband, also venerated for his service to the poor, supported her in her religious work. As a widow, the work became the greater, and with three children she continued her devotion, becoming even more devout and holy. God was calling her; she responded. This we know. Elizabeth of Hungary said “yes” to the Lord.

As she gave most of what she had to the needs of the poor, and she had much as a royal person, her family became alarmed and threw her out. She was even left homeless with three children, and out in the cold, literally. At one point, as a story goes, Elizabeth was confronted by irate family members who said she was spending their money and giving away their food. Thinking she was carrying money to the poor, they demanded she open her arms and show what she was “hiding.” As the tale goes, she opened her arms, and pressed against her body was a bouquet of roses. So beautiful. The tale lives with her special service to God, and indicates her favor by Him and her goodness. A miracle is what people consider the story of the roses.

Sometimes it is necessary to select an entire Psalm for a homily. So I think.

I am doing so, because it neatly describes this Godly woman. Here it is, the alternate Psalm for reading today:

Psalm 112 is from the New Standard Revised Version of the Bible. I’ll comment on her life as I read the lines.

Praise the Lord!

(And she did so, in heart and deed.)

Happy are those who fear
The Lord.

(Did God not call her, and give her trials as well as rewards?)

Who greatly delight in his commandments.
Their descendants will be mighty
In the land;

(Elizabeth studied under a strict spiritual director, and later in her young life became a Third Order Franciscan. She was a patron of the Franciscan Order, and they are her spiritual descendants, in a way of exemplary--Christ centered living.)

the generation of the upright
will be blessed.
Wealth and riches are in their
Houses,
And their righteousness endures
Forever.

(We remember Elizabeth eight Centuries later. Surely she is an inspiration, and the Church memorializes her for she was a righteous person who helps us come to Christ, and know what God wants of us. In our own Church of Our Saviour we engage in acts of charity and mercy, helping the poor and needy. One indication of this is our outreach through cooperative, Ecumenical service by feeding the homeless once a month in concert with our neighbor Catholic Church, Mt. Carmel.)

They rise in the darkness as a light
For the upright;
They are gracious, merciful, and
Righteous.
It is well with those who deal
Generously and lend.

(This woman of trials, banished by family among others, driven from her home city, lived a life of joy and service. Somehow this mystery of God’s joy is difficult to fathom. But we find evidence of it time and time again.)

who conduct their affairs with
justice.
For the righteous will never
Be moved;
They will be remembered
Forever.
They are not afraid of evil tidings;
Their hearts are firm, secure
In the Lord.
Their hearts are steady, they will
Not be afraid.

(Elizabeth, young, unafraid, steady in her faith, gave succor to so many, and was a self-sacrificing woman who began living a life of Holy denial. Sometimes it is missed that this remarkable woman as widow raised three children as she did Holy works. Elizabeth was a mother.)

in the end they will look in
triumph on their foes.

(We do believe that good prevails and that our God is on the side of good, that Christ is merciful, generous, forgiving, and loves man and woman, all of creation. We as a Parish participate in our own acts of service and needs of our neighbor as a moral religious community, who believes that our fellow humankind are part of creation. Even the poor, the misbegotten, the widow and alone, or orphan more than deserve our help, but require it.)

They have distributed freely, they
Have given to the poor;
Their righteousness endures
Forever;
Their horn is exalted in honor.

(This day we remember Elizabeth of Hungry, and we join in Eucharist together as part of our Feast Day in celebration. Thanks be to God.)

The wicked see it and are angry;
They gnash their teeth and melt
Away;
The desire of the wicked comes
To nothing.

Here ends the reading and lesson.



The Psalm is both beautiful and instructive. As I say, it does describe and illustrate the life and work of Elizabeth so well.

As you know from what we’ve been talking about, Elizabeth was a young widow. She is considered a patroness of widows. Here are two famous prayers in her name. I will say them for you.

Prayers to St. Elizabeth of Hungary
Patroness of Widows and widowers
feast day: November 17

Dear Saint Elizabeth, you were always poor in spirit, most generous toward the poor, faithful to your husband, and fully consecrated to your Divine Bridegroom. Grant your help to widows and widowers and keep them faithful to their heavenly Lord. Teach them how to cope with their loss and to make use of their time in the service of God. Amen.

Prayer of Widows and Widowers

Lord Jesus Christ, during your earthly life You showed compassion on those who had lost a loved one. Turn your compassionate eyes on me in my sorrow
over the loss of my life's partner. Take him/her into your heavenly kingdom as a reward for his/her earthly service.
Help me to cope with my loss by relying on You even more than before.
Teach me to adapt to the new conditions of my life and to continue doing
your will as I see it. Enable me to avoid withdrawing from life
and make me give myself to others more readily, so that I may continue to live in your grace and to do the tasks that You have laid out for me. Amen.

What to add about this exceptional woman. We praise her.

Thank you for being here on this Feast Day.

Amen.


--Peter Menkin, Pentecost 2008






(Appx. 1330 words)