1 Corinthians 1:10-17; Matthew 14:14-22
It is very easy for us to
overlook the importance of small, routine things that do not seem remarkable at
all. It is much more appealing to focus
on larger matters that we think have great significance. The problem, of course, is that it is in the
seemingly insignificant details of daily life that our true character is formed
and revealed. If we overlook the small challenges
we encounter each day, we will ignore what matters most.
Today we commemorate Saint Mary
Magdalene, who has the exalted title of Myrrh-Bearer and Equal to the
Apostles. After the Lord had cast seven
demons out of her, Mary became one of the women disciples who supported Him and
the twelve apostles from their own resources. (Luke 8:1-3). She remained with the Lord at His crucifixion
and was one of the women who saw the stone rolled away and heard from the angel
the good news of the resurrection when they went to the tomb early on the morning
of Pascha. St. John’s gospel records that the risen Christ appeared to her as
she wept at His empty grave. She was the first to proclaim His resurrection
when she told the unbelievably good news to the apostles that she had actually
seen the Lord. (John 20:11-18) Mary Magdalene
continued to preach His resurrection for the rest of her life, even to the
Roman Emperor Tiberius, to whom she gave a red egg with the words “Christ is
risen!” She then went to Ephesus to
minister with St. John the Theologian, where she died peacefully.
St. Mary Magdalene was prepared for
her uniquely glorious role as a witness and preacher of the Lord’s resurrection
because of her daily faithfulness to the Savior during His earthly
ministry. He had set her free from domination
by the forces of evil and she then followed Him with deep devotion, doing what
she could to help Him and the apostles. The
daily details of doing so were surely not glamorous, comfortable, or easy. The
Savior had “nowhere to lay His head” (Luke 9:58) and the apostles left behind
their livelihoods, possessions, and families to follow Him. Like them, Mary surely adopted a transient
way of life as they went with Him from town to town and shared in the many
challenges of the ministry of the Kingdom.
In the ultimate time of crisis
when Christ was nailed to the cross and all seemed lost, Mary bravely stood by
Him as He died. She went to the tomb in
the early hours of Sunday morning in order to do the sad work of anointing His
dead body as a final act of love. At the time, those actions probably did not
seem like grand gestures that would secure her memory as anyone particularly
important. They were simply the acts of faithfulness and love that were still available
to her. She sought nothing for herself other than to serve the Savior, even
when He was dead and no one expected the tomb to be empty. She did not serve herself at all, but only
her Lord. That is how she was made
worthy to see and speak with the risen Christ, and then to proclaim the good
news to the apostles.
Throughout the period of her life
in which she followed Christ, Mary probably often felt like the disciples in
today’s gospel reading. They had
thousands of people to feed with only five loaves and two fish. They felt greatly inadequate in the face of the
needs of a hungry multitude. As a woman
who had been possessed by demons and was then following Christ in His itinerant
ministry, Mary knew that she was not in charge or at the center of
attention. Accomplishing large or
impressive goals was surely not her aim.
All that she could do was to offer her seemingly insignificant life to
the Lord as best she could, which included supporting His ministry from her
resources and learning from Him as she followed along each day, regardless of
the challenges.
In our gospel reading, the Lord
took, blessed, and broke the bread, and then gave it to the disciples to
distribute to the people. Miraculously,
there was so much food that thousands had enough to eat with twelve basketsful
left over. Christ did not require the
disciples to figure out the logistics of how to feed so many people. He did not insist that they do something
really spectacular. All that He required was that they faithfully offered the
small amount that they had to Him. His
blessing did the rest.
That is precisely how Mary
Magdalene lived her life and became a glorious saint. The Lord did not require her to do something impressive
on a grand scale, but only to be faithful to Him each day in the circumstances
that she faced. Mary knew that she owed
everything to the Lord Who had delivered her from demons, and then she offered
herself to support Him and the apostles in their ministry as best she could. And when seemingly small acts of devotion
like staying with Christ as He died and then going to the tomb to anoint His dead
body enabled her to become the first to witness and proclaim His resurrection,
there was surely no one more surprised than Mary Magdalene.
We should learn from her holy and
humble example not to ignore, reject, or diminish the importance of the
seemingly small opportunities for serving Christ that we have each day. Our lives do not go from one exciting and
spectacular adventure to another. Familiar
routines and responsibilities fill our days.
God calls us to offer ourselves to Him faithfully and fully as we are,
not as we fantasize about how we would like our lives to be. Fantasy remains precisely that, an escape
from reality. If we do not take
advantage of the small opportunities for serving Christ that we encounter each
day in unremarkable ways, then we will never truly offer our lives to Him.
The obedience to which the Lord
calls us probably will not seem especially noteworthy. Devoting a few minutes each day to prayer and
Bible reading, for example, requires only a small offering of our time, energy,
and will. The same is true for just
about every spiritual discipline of the Christian life, from attending services
to fasting, taking Confession, and helping someone in need. We often magnify those offerings in our
imagination to the point that we welcome excuses not to make them because we think
that they will be so extraordinarily difficult.
When we face that temptation, it is helpful to remember that God does
not sternly require an exalted level of spiritual perfection in everything that
we do. We simply need to offer ourselves
to Him as best we can in our daily challenges, such as: holding our tongues
when want to speak out of anger and judgment; turning our attention away from
entertainment, conversations, and thoughts that inflame our passions; and limiting
our self-absorption in order to become sensitive to the needs of others. Likewise, He calls none of us to fulfill
every ministry of the Church, but does call us all to use our gifts in strengthening the Body of Christ.
The same Lord Who fed thousands with
a tiny bit of food feeds us with His own Body and Blood in every celebration of
the Eucharist. Those who commune with the
One Who offered Himself for the salvation of the world have an obligation to
offer every dimension of their lives for union with Him in holiness. That is precisely how Saint Mary Magdalene
became a Myrrh-Bearer and Equal to the Apostles, the first to proclaim the good
news of the resurrection. She did not
set out to do something great, but simply to make a faithful offering of her
life to the Lord. Let us follow her blessed, holy example as we serve Christ with
humility in the routine matters of our lives each day. These are the actions that reveal who we are
before God.
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