PCC-SMM

In the Gospels there is talk of Mary Magdalene, the sinner (Luke 7, 37-50); Mary Magdalene, one of the women who followed the Lord (Jn 20, 10-18) and Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus (Lk 10, 38-42). The Roman liturgy identifies the three women with the name of Mary Magdalene, as does the ancient western tradition since the time of St. Gregory the Great. The name of Mary Magdalene is derived from Magdala, a town located on the western shore of the Sea of ​​Galilee, near Tiberias, in which the Lord first met that woman.

 

Saint Luke notes that she was a sinner (although she does not claim that she was a prostitute, as is commonly assumed). Christ was having dinner at a Pharisee's house where the sinner appeared and immediately threw herself on the floor in front of the Lord, began to cry and wiped her feet with her hair. Then he anointed the perfume he carried in an alabaster glass. The Pharisee interpreted the silence of Christ as a kind of approval of sin and murmured in his heart. Jesus rebuked him for his thoughts. He asked in the form of a parable which of two debtors owes greater thanks to his creditor: the one to whom a greater debt is forgiven, or to which a lesser sum is forgiven.

 

In the next chapter, Saint Luke, speaks of Christ's travels through Galilee, says that the apostles accompanied him and that several women served him. Among them was Mary Magdalene, from whom she had cast "seven demons." María Magdalena is also remembered for other episodes. In the darkest hour of Christ's life, Mary Magdalene contemplated the cross at some distance. Accompanied by "the other Mary," she discovered that someone had removed the heavy stone from the Lord's grave. She was the first person who saw, greeted and recognized the risen Christ. Mary Magdalene, the contemplative, was the first witness of the Lord's resurrection, without which our hope is futile.

 

The Son of God wanted to manifest the glory of his resurrection to that woman stained by sin and sanctified by penance. Oriental tradition states that after Pentecost, he went to live in Ephesus with the Virgin Mary and Saint John and that he died there. But, according to the French tradition adopted by the Roman Martyrology and widespread in the West, Mary Magdalene went with Lazarus and Martha to evangelize Provence and spent thirty years of her life in the Maritime Alps, in the cavern of the Sainte Baume. Shortly before her death she was miraculously transferred to the chapel of San Maximino, where she received the last sacraments and was buried by the saint.

 

 

Source: aciprensa.