Mary!

 

           

 
    In the responsorial psalm of today's Mass we read: "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad".  This refrain is repeated everyday in the Gospel verse during the Easter Octave at the weekday Masses.  THIS IS THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE---REJOICE AND BE GLAD!  The reason for our rejoicing is that by the passion death and resurrection of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, He has won complete victory over Sin, Satan and Death.  This is the day!

 

This is the day for salvation from sin!

 

This is the day for redemption from the grip of Satan as St. Peter said in the first reading today!

 

This is the day for resurrection from death---the eternal death that sin brings about!

 

Christ, Our Risen Saviour has won complete victory over these mortal enemies of man and we are victorious in Christ.  The gates of heaven are now open to us and eternal life is ours for the asking, if we live in accord with the Gospel.  It is in this that we rejoice!

 

            Let us keep in mind what St. Peter tells us un the first reading that, "Everyone who believes in Him has the forgiveness of sins".  We know from our Catholic faith that this belief is not merely believing in Jesus Christ, but above all, following and living His Gospel which is embodied in the faith and morality of the Church.

 

            And then we have the message of St. Paul in the second reading.  He tells us that now that we are redeemed not to celebrate this feast with the old yeast of the sinful person but with the new leaven of the redeemed person---Now that we are redeemed, we must now put aside sin and put on Jesus Christ and live lives worthy of the Gospel, worthy of our baptism into Christ Jesus.

 

            Today's liturgy gives us an outstanding example of a redeemed person and what conversion means.  The example comes from a most unlikely source.  In today's Gospel we again run across a name that comes up time and again during these days of the Paschal Mysteries---the name of Mary Magdalene!  What a tremendous saint she was and, I believe, she is a tremendous saint for our times---an example we must all follow.

 

            We know very little of her.  Probably, she is the same Mary who was the sister of Martha and Lazarus, the one that Our Lord raised from the dead.  So, obviously she came from a good family, but somewhere along the line she went bad and when she fell she fell completely.  Probably she found her way to the rich resort town of Magdala, where all the idle rich of those days went to play and to sin.  The gospel tells us that she was possessed of seven devils which was the biblical way of saying that she was involved in every vice conceivable.  Mary probably did things that would make us all blush.  And so she laughed and made merry.  She was the life of the party---on the outside.  But inside, well there was an emptiness, a longing.  Many was the night, when she was alone, that she probably cried herself to sleep because of her empty life.

 

            Then, in some way, we are not told how, she saw Our Lord.  Maybe she heard him speak, maybe they just passed one another on the street and he looked into her eyes---those eyes of Our Lord that must have pierced right through her and saw every sin, every shame, every guilt.  But he did not look at here in condemnation but in mercy and love and forgiveness.  And she responded to that grace he gave her.  And the gospel tells us that Our Lord cast seven devils out of Mary.  And she converted completely. 

 

            She is the one who, in sorrow for sin, walked into a room full of men and washed the feet of our Lord with her tears and dried them with her hair.   And Our Lord said that where ever this Gospel is preached, she will be remembered. 

 

            We see her again on Calvary.  After everyone else had run out on Our Lord, she was there at the foot of the Cross with Our Blessed Mother and St. John.  And she was literally washed clean with the blood of the lamb.  She converted completely, totally.  She didn't say well, I'll hold onto some of my sins.  I'll be freed of six devils but there is one that I want to hold onto.  Or I'll follow Jesus but on my terms and not his.  No she loved him completely.  She remembered his word: "if you love me you will keep my commandments"

 

             And when Our Lord rose from the dead who was it that he appeared to first.  St. Peter, the head of His new Church. No! The Apostles. No!  Did He appear first to Our Blessed Mother!  No!  St. Mark tells us that he appeared first to Mary Magdalene.  This is why he had come to save the sheep that were lost.  And for all time Mary Magdalene is the type of the converted sinner that became a Saint.  Let us imitate Saint Mary Magdalene and give ourselves completely to the Lord Jesus and live our lives in accord with the Gospel as it is expressed in the faith and morals of our Holy Church!