Have you ever wondered how come it was that Mary Magdalene was the first apostle of the Resurrection? Why did Mary Magdalene and perhaps other women get up at dawn on that first day after the sabbath to go to Jesus’ tomb? How did they expect to roll away the stone? How were they going to get cooperation from the guards?
Those prayer questions led me to notice a detail at the end of the story of the crucifixion in all four Gospels. Here is what they say.
Matthew says, “Many women were present looking on from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to tend to his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.” (Matthew 27:55-56) He adds after describing the burial, “But Mary Magdalene and the other Mary remained sitting there, facing the tomb.” (Matthew 27:61). Mark gives some different names, but says essentially the same thing (Mark 15:40-41, 47)
Luke also notes the women were there: “All his friends and the women who had accompanied him from Galilee were standing at a distance watching everything.” (Luke 23:49) He adds that the women followed along as Joseph of Arimathea buried Jesus. “They saw the tomb and how his body was buried. Then they went home to prepare spices and perfumes. They observed the sabbath as a day of rest, in accordance with the law.” (Luke 23:54-56) John puts the women at the foot of the cross with Jesus’ mother, Mary. “Near the cross of Jesus there stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.” (John 19:25)
In All Four Gospels
It is a detail worth noting that all four Gospels include that there were women who loved Jesus and had been “tending to his needs” who kept watch through the crucifixion. They stood by and watched. They didn’t wipe his face with a cloth like Veronica. They didn’t meet him on the way of the cross weeping.
But they also didn’t disappear. They didn’t run and hide. They stood by and silently watched as long as there was nothing they could do.
The four Gospels agree the women were there on Good Friday and that they kept watch. But exactly how events happened on that Easter morning differs from Gospel to Gospel. The Gospels as we know them were written between AD 50 and 90, some 20 to 60 years after Jesus lived, died, and rose from the dead. Those 20 to 60 years between resurrection and writing leave us with varying renditions of exactly who did what on Easter morning. (Matthew 28:1-10, Mark 16:1-11, Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-18)
The Gospels all agree, however, that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early on Easter morning. She may or may not have had other women with her. She (they) went to continue to “tend to Jesus’ needs.” Now Jesus’ only needs that the women could discern as they walked in the dawn were appropriate care of his body. It was one last loving thing that COULD be done.
Tending to Jesus’ Needs
How interesting! Mary Magdalene and the other women wanted to care for Jesus’ body. They were thinking oils, spices, and perfumes.
They DID tend to Jesus’ body! Jesus’ RESURRECTED BODY. Mary Magdalene SAW him. She didn’t expect to see a resurrected body, so she didn’t recognize him until he spoke her name. Then she proclaimed him—to the disciples who came running.
Jesus’ needs changed. But he still had them. Jesus’ need post-Easter was for apostles to spread the good news. He didn’t need the human “cling to me” love Mary Magdalene and the others had given since the days of walking from town to town in Galilee.
All the world and all of history changed on Easter morning because God showed us that death is not the end for us. AND because it was God Himself who bore the burden of changing everything by choosing to experience all the evil that politics, misinterpreted law, fear, hatred, indeed all of human sin could impose. Evil could kill human bodies, but it could not, did not, kill God.
Mary Magdalene and the other women were the first to understand that. They didn’t understand from study of Scripture or Law. They probably didn’t understand from any personal merit beyond they had the courage to stand as close to Jesus as they could on Good Friday.
They were the first to understand because they were the first to SEE and experience the resurrected Jesus. It is a matter of logic, but it seems to me they were the first to see Jesus because their love for him led them to do what they could to “tend to his needs,” so they were in the right place at the right time.
Applications for Us
We are so used to believing in the Resurrection that it takes some serious effort to enter into the minds and hearts of those who followed Jesus. He kept telling them he would die and rise on the third day. Yet it was not the disciples who kept a guard on the tomb to see it happen. They went home. The religious leaders and Pilate kept guard, lest the disciples could SAY he was resurrected.
It is good for us to try to enter the disciples’ (men and women) minds and hearts. Belief in the resurrection “on the last day” was common in Jesus’ time. Belief that souls were eternal had been a part of Jewish belief for centuries. What exactly eternal life might be like was unformed, but it was a part of culture.
But it was all considered without understanding that Jesus was both God and man.
God rose from the dead. God rose from the dead STILL in his human body. Jesus was not just a very good man. He was God in the flesh. And the God in the flesh that he was (and is) is good. Jesus’ resurrection showed that the goodness, the power, the love of God already has, continues to, and will forever OVERCOME evil through faithful Truth, Love, and Fidelity.
And the women on the sidelines who simply tended Jesus’ needs were the first to see it.
Cabrini, the Movie
Have you seen the movie, Cabrini? I highly recommend it. It led me to this self-assessment: When I was young, I was as determined as Mother Cabrini was to overcome the evils I saw with what good I could do. In the company of others, much good got done.
But I have grown soft. I still want to overcome evil with good, but when I meet serious opposition, now I choose to do something else.
There has been criticism of the movie because it does not show Mother Cabrini’s prayer life. It also doesn’t show her whole life. It shows a few years when she first came to the US. It doesn’t show the missions, foundations, and global work for God of her lifetime. A person doesn’t do what she did with the opposition and success she had without God being in the middle of it. And God isn’t in the middle of it without prayer.
I’m also reminded that we all thought we knew Mother Teresa’s prayer life, but it wasn’t until after she died that we knew about the struggles of her prayer.
Saints don’t pray to be seen. They pray to be in relationship with God.
As I have examined myself–why I have grown soft in the face of opposition-I have determined that now my zeal for social justice focuses more on teaching about peace and justice and less on changing the world. It’s hard for me to admit that I’ve grown more soft than wise with age.
I wonder if those who critique the Cabrini film are perhaps also piqued by its message: “Whatsoever you do to the least of Jesus’ brothers, you do to Christ.” When you tend the practical needs of others with love, you live the resurrection, for Christ is both in you and in those you serve.
What better prayer than that can there be?
The world may not believe in the Resurrection of Jesus in the Eucharist, mass, or other sacraments. But individuals may come toward belief when they see each of us tending to the needs of those around us with Christ’s resurrection love.
I just returned home from spending Holy Week at St. Meinrad. The liturgies were exquisite. Prayer and worship came readily from them. But, for me, the holiest moment came Good Friday when we were venerating the cross. A man pushed his wife in a wheel chair to the cross and put her hand on it. She looked like she could not move, but she was dressed to the nines. I had seen him through the week, being very careful to include her, care for her, love her in everything he did.
When I saw his act of love in the liturgy, the meaning of the cross and its veneration was very clear. He truly venerated the cross because he gave himself up to love when love cost a lot of effort. His wife was living the cross in her illness; he was living the cross in his care giving. Such love is the love that changes the world. It was the love of Mary Magdalene and the other women. It was the love of Mother Cabrini. It is the love open to you and me.
The prayer today is from St. Teresa of Avila–a woman of prayer and tending.
Easter Peace and Blessings
St Teresa of Avila’s Prayer
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which He looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are His body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
