Woman, why are you weeping?

TUESDAY 14 APRIL (Jn 20,11-18)

Mary of Magdala is in great pain. At this moment she is the true figure of Jerusalem deprived of its splendor in the days of its desolation. Lord Jesus was the splendour of Mary of Màgdala’s soul. She lost him. There is no greater pain: “Look O Lord, and see how worthless I have become! “Come, all you who pass by the way, look and see Whether there is any suffering like my suffering, which has been dealt me When the Lord afflicted me on the day of his blazing wrath. “From on high he sent fire down into my very frame; He spread a net for my feet, and overthrew me. He left me desolate, in pain all the day. “He has kept watch over my sins; by his hand they have been plaited: They have settled about my neck, he has brought my strength to its knees; The Lord has delivered me into their grip, I am unable to rise. “All the mighty ones in my midst the Lord has cast away; He summoned an army against me to crush my young men; The Lord has trodden in the wine press virgin daughter Judah. “At this I weep, my eyes run with tears: Far from me are all who could console me, any who might revive me; My sons were reduced to silence when the enemy prevailed.” Zion stretched out her hands, but there was no one to console her; The Lord gave orders against Jacob for his neighbors to be his foes; Jerusalem has become in their midst a thing unclean. “The Lord is just; I had defied his command. Listen, all you peoples, and behold my suffering:

“My maidens and my youths have gone into captivity. “I cried out to my lovers, but they failed me. My priests and my elders perished in the city; Where they sought food for themselves, they found it not. “Look, O Lord, upon my distress: all within me is in ferment, My heart recoils within me from my monstrous rebellion. In the streets the sword bereaves, at home death stalks. “Give heed to my groaning; there is no one to console me. All my enemies rejoice at my misfortune: it is you who have wrought it. Bring on the day you have proclaimed, that they may be even as I. “Let all their evil come before you; deal with them As you have dealt with me for all my sins; My groans are many, and I am sick at heart”” (Lam 1,11-22). Jerusalem loses its glory and weeps bitterly. Mary of Magdala loses her glory, the glory of her soul and weeps inconsolable tears. The Church today is losing her glory, Christ the Lord, and it seems to be in the days preceding the universal flood or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Everyone is intent on his own business, his petty trafficking, his occupations of sin, falsehood, lies and deception. But nobody cares about the ruin of the Church, that is deprived of her glory.

But Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'” Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and what he told her.

If we wept tears of repentance, repentance and conversion, Jesus would also come to us to bring us his consolation, to give himself back to us as our glory and our splendor. He would also send us on mission, not to the pagans, but to his Church to announce to her that He is the Risen One, the Eternal Living One, that He is her only glory, her only honour and her only boast. It is useless to seek an alliance with Egypt, this broken reed that pierces the hand of the one leaning on it. That of Mary is a cry of innocence for the loss of her glory. Ours must be a cry of penitence for letting our glory be torn from us.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints arrange that every Christian looks for his glory and his boast.