Saint Mary Magdalen (Revisited)….
Originally Posted on July 7, 2016 by dksmith918
Saint Mary Magdalen…
Saint Mary Magdalen
Even More from MacDonald on St. Mary:
(Added on July 28, 2019)
“…the border-land where thought and matter meet is the region where all marvels and miracles are generated. The wisdom of this world can believe that matter generates mind: what seems to me the wisdom from above can believe that mind generates matter—that matter is but the manifest mind. On this supposition matter may well be subject to mind; much more, if Jesus be the Son of God, his own body must be subject to his will. I doubt, indeed, if the condition of any man is perfect before the body he inhabits is altogether obedient to his will—before, through his own absolute obedience to the Father, the realm of his own rule is put under him perfectly.”…..
…“Why was this miracle needful?
Perhaps, for one thing, that men should not limit him, or themselves in him, to the known forms of humanity; and for another, that the best hope might be given them of a life beyond the grave; that their instinctive desires in that direction might thus be infinitely developed and assured. I suspect, however, that it followed just as the natural consequence of all that preceded.
If Christ be risen, then is the grave of humanity itself empty. We have risen with him, and death has henceforth no dominion over us. Of every dead man and woman it may be said: He—she—is not here, but is risen and gone before us. Ever since the Lord lay down in the tomb, and behold it was but a couch whence he arose refreshed, we may say of every brother: He is not dead but sleepeth. He too is alive and shall arise from his sleep.”
Excerpt From Miracles of Our Lord by George MacDonald
(Added on July 22, 2019)
Of Lazarus’ return from death Mary becomes totally devoted to her Lord…“Joy of all joys! The dead come back! Is it any wonder that this Mary should spend three hundred pence on an ointment for the feet of the Raiser of the Dead?”
“I doubt if he told them anything? I do not think he could make even his own flesh and blood—of woman-kind, quick to understand—know the things he had seen and heard and felt. All that can be said concerning this, is thus said by our beloved brother Tennyson in his book In Memoriam:
‘Where wert thou, brother, those four days?’
There lives no record of reply,
Which telling what it is to die,
Had surely added praise to praise.
Behold a man raised up by Christ!
The rest remaineth unrevealed;
He told it not; or something sealed
The lips of that Evangelist.”
“Why are we left in such ignorance?
Without the raising of the dead, without the rising of the Saviour himself, Christianity would not have given what it could of hope for the future. Hope is not faith, but neither is faith sight; and if we have hope we are not miserable men. But Christianity must not, could not interfere with the discipline needful for its own fulfilment, could not depose the schoolmaster that leads unto Christ. One main doubt and terror which drives men towards the revelation in Jesus, is this strange thing Death. How shall any man imagine he is complete in himself, and can do without a Father in heaven, when he knows that he knows neither the mystery whence he sprung by birth, nor the mystery to which he goes by death? God has given us room away from himself as Robert Browning says:—
…”God, whose pleasure brought
Man into being, stands away,
As it were, an hand-breadth off, to give
Room for the newly-made to live,
And look at Him from a place apart,
And use His gifts of brain and heart”—
and this room, in its time-symbol, is bounded by darkness is bounded by darkness on the one hand, and darkness on the other. Whence I came and whither I go are dark: how can I live in peace without the God who ordered it thus? Faith is my only refuge—an absolute belief in a being so much beyond myself, that he can do all for this me with utter satisfaction to this me, protecting all its rights, jealously as his own from which they spring, that he may make me at last one with himself who is my deeper self, inasmuch as his thought of me is my life. And not to know him, even if I could go on living and happy without him, is death.
It may be said, “Why all this? Why not go on like a brave man to meet your fate, careless of what that fate may be?……
What better sign of immortality than the raising of the dead could God give? He cannot, however, be always raising the dead before our eyes; for then the holiness of death’s ends would be a failure. We need death; only it shall be undone once and again for a time, that we may know it is not what it seems to us. I have already said that probably we are not capable of being told in words what the other world is. But even the very report through the ages that the dead came back, as their friends had known them, with the old love unlost in the grave, with the same face to smile and bless, is precious indeed…..
“To sum up: An express revelation in words would probably be little intelligible. In Christ we have an ever-growing revelation. He is the resurrection and the life. As we know him we know our future.
In our ignorance lies a force of need, compelling us towards God.
In this, as in all his miracles, our Lord shows in one instance what his Father is ever doing without showing it.
In our ignorance likewise lies the room for the development of the simple will, as well as the necessity for arousing it. Hence this ignorance is but the shell of faith.
Even the report of this is the best news we can have from the other world—as we call it.”
Excerpt From Miracles of Our Lord by George MacDonald
More on Mary Magdalene from George MacDonald:
(MacDonald like CS Lewis and myself see her like ourselves as a sinner. Mary upon being healed dedicates her life to serving her Lord!)
“We hear next, from St Luke, of certain women who followed him, having been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, amongst whom is mentioned “Mary, called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils.” No wonder a woman thus delivered should devote her restored self to the service of him who had recreated her. We hear nothing of the circumstances of the cure, only the result in her constant ministration. Hers is a curious instance of the worthlessness of what some think it a mark of high-mindedness to regard alone—the opinion, namely, of posterity. Without a fragment of evidence, this woman has been all but universally regarded as impure. But what a trifle to her! Down in this squabbling nursery of the race, the name of Mary Magdalene may be degraded even to a subject for pictorial sentimentalities; but the woman herself is with that Jesus who set her free. To the end of time they may call her what they please: to her it is worth but a smile of holy amusement. And just as worthy is the applause of posterity associated with a name. To God alone we live or die. “Let us fall, as, thank him, we must, into his hands. Let him judge us. Posterity may be wiser than we; but posterity is not our judge.”
Excerpt From Miracles of Our Lord by George MacDonald
Revisiting Saint Mary Magdalen:
Saint Mary Magdalen…… I can identify with St. Mary. She was a rich party girl and I was a rich arrogant party boy. She was under the control of seven demons, demigods that rendered her powerless. I too was powerless over small gods that were destroying me. My story is long but I remember when I was broken and cried out ‘Lord Help me’….
CS Lewis wrote in “Membership” (in the Body of Christ) this tribute to St. Mary Magdalen:
“It is nice to be still under the care of St. Mary Magdalen…The allegorical sense of her great action dawned on me the other day. The precious alabaster box which one must break over the Holy Feet is one’s heart. Easier said than done. And contents become perfume only when broken. While they are safe inside they are like sewage. All very alarming.”
Earlier I posted:
St. Mary Magdalen has always been a favorite biblical character of mine. She was one of Jesus’ inner circle and the first to see the Risen Lord. Her redemption from a ‘rich party woman’ (some say worse) with seven demon possessions to one closest to Christ gives hope to us all…I enjoy the group‘Cry Cry Cry’ so I share this….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0OH4pIvXBQ&list=RDH0OH4pIvXBQ&start_radio=1
(This I first saw during Lent. I reviewed it today and will soon be reading about the other Mary.)
Hearing this song (below) in August (2019) I am reminded how St. Mary Magdalene knew this Holy Essence better than any of Jesus’ followers…enJOY!