In the name of God, +Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen

From the Apocrypha, we read in Judith,
"...thou art God of the lowly, helper of the oppressed, upholder of the weak, protector of the forlorn, savior of those without hope. ... Make my deceitful words to be their wound and stripe,
... thou art God, the God of all power and might...!"

In this passage from the book of Judith, we have an echo of the tone set by the Psalmist:

My tears have been my food day and night...
... I went with the throng, ...
Deep calls to deep at the thunder of thy cataracts.

This focus on our sinfulness and our need for God's redemption in Christ continues in Saint Paul's second epistle to the people at Corinth:

... one has died for all; therefore all have died.
... if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

So, the tone for this morning's focus on sin and redemption has been set. We will look at sin, its ingredients, its effect, and its remedy. In this inspection, we must be careful not to fall into the Enemy's trap: the Devil is victorious if he can convince us that neither he nor sin is to be taken seriously. How very consistent: God convinces us of His power, might, and existence that we might be saved; the Devil tries to lead us to disbelief in him and his sinful potency that we might be damned!

Now we turn to Mary Magdalene, to Mary from Magdala, to that unique first witness of the resurrection. Our Lord had all sorts of disciples, of learned followers, of loyal supporters. To whom did He choose first to reveal Himself; by whom was He first seen; from whom did word of His resurrection first come?

Mary Magdalene is the woman referred to in early Christian writings as "the apostle to the apostles." Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany (sister of Martha and Lazarus), and the unnamed penitent woman who anointed Jesus' feet are supposed to be the same woman. From this, plus the statement that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her, has risen the tradition that she had been a prostitute before she met Jesus.

Mary is often portrayed in art as weeping, or with eyes red from having wept. From this appearance, we derive the English word "maudlin", meaning "effusively or tearfully sentimental."

So this is the person to whom the risen Lord chose first to reveal Himself; this is the first to proclaim the Easter shout, "He is risen; the Lord is risen indeed!" This woman, a woman caught in adultery, a woman who was forgiven much because she loved much, a woman with the expensive ointment who bathed Jesus' feet with her tears and hair, this Mary Magdalene.

At first, Mary did not recognize the Lord:
...she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" 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."

Note that it was when Jesus called her by name, when He recognized her, it was then that
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rab-bo'ni!" (which means My Teacher). ...
Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord."

In this one person, in this first witness of the Resurrection, in Mary Magdalene, we see many of the central themes of the Faith recapitulated: sin, redemption, forgiveness, acceptance, absolution, guilt, and atonement.

In this first appearance to this redeemed sinner, Jesus makes clear that all sin is a debt owed to him, and that those whom He has forgiven ought to be grateful to him.

The sequel to this pardoning of a sinner brings joy and blessedness of forgiveness, of the Heavenly Father who seeks his lost children and throws parties when they return, and of the promise of reconciliation and rebirth of life as part of a new creation.

What honest generation can ignore its folly and failure and its need for forgiveness? What honest generation, especially one which has witnessed the destruction of creation, can fail to see the hope contained in the message of a new creation? What honest generation can refuse to admit to its longing for belonging, for home, in some sense of that term?

This message of forgiveness, of newness, of redemption, and their wonderful, hopeful connotations all turn upon the notion of repentance. In the New Testament, repentance indicates a change of mind, of heart, of the fundamental orientation of one's being.

"Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand,"

We have here a shift from the ways of the world, the ways of sin and sinful humanity, to God. Repentance is intimately linked with the emphases on forgiveness, acceptance, and reconciliation.

When Mary Magdalene washed the feet of our Lord with her tears, she shed tears of sadness for repentance. When Magdalene wiped the feet of our Lord with her hair, we see her submission to her Redeemer. When she continually kissed the feet of our Lord, she showed her humiliation before Him.

Her act showed total prostration and obeisance, for she could not have kissed the feet of our Lord without totally bowing down. This act of spiritual humility brought forth God's mercy. Further, unceasingly kissing the feet of our Lord indicates continuous relationship. This is the equivalent of "praying without ceasing."

Her pouring of costly ointment on our Lord filling the house with the odor showed her adoration of him and her gratitude.

To no one among Christ's apostles and disciples, including the Blessed Virgin Mary, did He give this singular honor of showing Himself first at His resurrection but to Mary Magdalene. As we read in the parallel passage in Saint Mark:

Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.

No wonder our Lord said that we should retell the life of Mary Magdalene whenever and wherever the Gospel is preached. In Saint Matthew we see,

Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached... there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.

What is sin; who are sinners; who needs Jesus and His atoning forgiveness and reconciliation? God has endowed us with reason and free-will, and a sense of responsibility, for He has made us subject to His law, which is known to us by the dictates of conscience.

Our acts must conform with these dictates; otherwise we sin. Theologians have gone on interminably defining, categorizing, analyzing, and codifying sin. At the end, we can state simply that actual sin is committed by a free personal act of the individual will.

Note in the words of St. Augustine, that God would not have permitted evil had He not been powerful enough to bring good out of evil. Before Christ, no sin is without its punishment.

The evil men do must be atoned for either in this world by penance or in the world to come in purgatory or hell. God has provided a remedy for sin and manifested His love and goodness in the face of man's ingratitude by the Incarnation of His Divine Son.

In Christ, atonement [at one ment] with God has come; Jesus has suffered for our sins. He who was without sin paid with His perfect life for the sins of Magdalene, for the sins of Deacon David, and for the sins of all who embrace Him as Lord and Saviour.

This understanding of sin, as far as our finite intelligence can understand it, serves to unite man more closely to God.

We are fallen creatures, and our spiritual life on earth is a warfare. Sin is our enemy, and while of our own strength we cannot avoid sin, with God's grace we can. If we but place no obstacle to the workings of grace we can avoid all deliberate sin. If we have the misfortune to sin, and seek God's grace and pardon with a contrite and humble heart, He will not repel us.

Left to ourselves we fall; by keeping close to God and continually seeking His help, we can stand and struggle against sin, and if faithful in the battle, we with Mary Magdalene shall be crowned in heaven.

We shortly will have opportunity, with Mary Magdalene, to throw ourselves at the feet of our Lord, to beg His forgiveness of our sins, then to be fed with the Medicine of immortality.

One caution: forty-four years ago, right here in this Church, following my first particular confession, Fr. Sewell Emerson asked if I had prepared a list of my sins. When I proudly replied that I had, he directed me immediately to tear up the list and throw it away. His point: when the priest pronounces absolution, God puts away our sins; they are washed in the Blood of the Lamb; and they are gone. Likewise, we ought, after confession and Fr. Huntress's absolution, with Mary Magdalene, to throw away our sins and live the new life in Christ, nourished with His Body and Blood which we receive this morning,

We pray that God, whose only Son restored Mary Magdalene and called her to be the first witness of his resurrection may heal us of all our infirmities, in the name of God, +Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen

>8 pp, 1,718 w, 224 l = 13.8 m
All Saints Ashmont S. Mary Magdalene 22 July 2001 10:00

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