Homily 25

Pronounced before the people

in the basilica of St John, so-called Constantine

April 20, 591 (Easter Friday)

The apparition to Mary Magdalene

Saint John recounts the appearance of the risen Christ to Mary Magdalene, near the tomb: all in tears, she believes the Lord taken away, until she recognizes him in the guise of the one she took for the gardener. Gregory comments on this page of the Gospel with emotion. He does not hide his veneration for Mary Magdalene, whom he considers to be one with the sinner whom St. Luke shows us at the feet of Jesus (cf Lk 7, 36-50, commented passage in Homily 33 ) and with Mary, sister of Lazarus. Very happily, the speaker brings Marie-Madeleine closer to the Bride of the Song of Songs. Love, tears and desire characterize these two characters.

Homily presents itself in two parts: the first comments on the gospel verse by verse; the second exposes the doctrine of redemption, Christ's victory over death, Satan and sin. The conclusion invites sinners to penance.

I- (1-6) A sinner, Mary has washed by her tears the defilement of her sins. She remains alone in the tomb after the departure of the disciples, and thus deserves to see the Lord. All this first part of Homily is consecrated by St. Gregory to sing in Mary Magdalene the immense strength of charity when it sets a soul on fire. One can not read such a passage without feeling won by the fire burning in the preacher's heart.

II- (7-10) Turning then to a proper theological theme, the Pope compares the Redemption to the fishing hook of Leviathan, of which Job speaks. The devil bit into the bait of the humanity of Christ, and the sting of the deity pierced his jaw, forcing him to release his other prey. Thanks to which it is now possible for us to escape his mouth by penance. And this is where our speaker joins Saint Mary Magdalene, from whom he seemed to have gone so far. How many examples of the mercies of the Lord are given to us, he exclaims: Peter, the thief, Zacchaeus and Mary. Like them, let us return to tears and avoid sin.

Jn 20, 11-18

At that time Mary was standing by the tomb outside, crying. While weeping, she leaned over and looked into the tomb; She saw two angels in white, sitting one at the head, the other at the feet of the place where the body of Jesus had been laid. They said to her, "Woman, why are you crying?" She said to them, "Because my Lord was taken away, and I do not know where it was put." Having said that, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to him, "Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for? "She, thinking that he was the gardener, said to her," Lord, if you took it away, tell me where you put it, and I will take it. "Jesus said to him, "Mary!" She turned around and said to her, "Rabboni!", that is to say, "Master." Jesus said to him, "Do not touch me, for I have not yet gone back to my Father. But go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. "Mary Magdalene went to announce to the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had told her these things. .

Mary Magdalene had been a sinner in the city. But in loving the Truth, she washed by her tears the defilement of her faults. Thus the word of Truth is fulfilled: "His many sins are given to him, because he has loved much" (Lk 7:47). For she, whom sin had first maintained in coldness, love afterwards burned her ardently.

When she arrived at the tomb and did not find the body of the Lord, she thought that she had been taken away, and she announced it to the disciples. They came, found, and thought that he was well as this woman had told them. The text then notes about them: "Then the disciples returned to their homes" (Jn 20:10). Then he adds: "Mary, she stood near the tomb, outside, and wept." This is what should make us measure the strength of love that inflamed the soul of this woman. The disciples went away, but she did not go away from the tomb of the Lord. She was looking for the one she had not found; she cried while looking for him, and, inflamed by the fire of her love, she burned with the desire of him whom she believed to be taken away.

So it happened that she was then alone to see him, she who remained to look for him. For it is perseverance that gives effectiveness to the good work. Truth does not affirm it: "He who persevereth unto the end shall be saved" (Mt 10:22). Moreover, according to the precepts of the Law, the tail of the victim was to be offered as a sacrifice, because the tail is at the end of the body. But this one makes a good offering that leads the sacrifice of a good work to its normal completion. In the same sense, it is said that Joseph was alone among his brothers to have a dress down to the heels. And a dress descending to the heels represents the good work carried out.

Marie, crying, leaned over and looked into the tomb. Surely she had already seen that the tomb was empty; she had already announced the removal of the Lord. Why is she still bending down? Why does she want to see again? But it is that for the one who loves, to look once is not enough, because the force of the love increases the will to seek. She sought first without finding anything; but because she persevered in her search, she eventually found. What happened? His desires grew to be unsatisfied, and as they grew, they hugged what they had found. Here we find what the Church says about the Bridegroom in the Song of Songs: "In bed, during the night, I sought the one my soul loves. I searched for it, and I did not find it. I will get up and go through the city. In the streets and squares, I will look for the one my heart loves. "

(Ct 3, 1-2). And as she does not find the one she is looking for, she repeats: "I looked for him, and I did not find him." But when one never tires of searching, one does not take long to find; that is why she adds: "The guards met me, those who watch over the city: 'Have you seen the one whom my soul loves?'> Hardly had I passed them than I found the one who love my soul "(Ct 3: 3-4). We seek the Beloved in bed when in the brief moments of rest of the present life we ​​ardently desire our Redeemer. It is in the night that we look for it, because even if our soul watches over it, our eyes still do not see it. But if someone has not found his Beloved, he has only to get up and go through the city, that is to say to review in his soul the holy Church of the elect. Let him seek it by the streets and the squares, that is to say, he examines those who advance by the narrow way or by the broad way, in order to endeavor to discover in them traces of the Beloved, for there are acts of virtue to be imitated even by certain seculars.

As we search, the guards who watch over the city meet us, in the sense that the holy Fathers, who watch over the Church, provide for our good desires to know and teach us by their words and writings. Hardly have we passed them than we find the one we love, since even though our Redeemer was a man of humility among men, he remains, by his divinity, above men. When we have passed the guards, we therefore find the Beloved, because seeing that the prophets and apostles are inferior to him, we come to regard him as above men, who is God by nature.

God begins to be sought without being found, so that we retain it more closely when we find it. Indeed, as we have said, the holy desires grow from not being satiated right away. If, on the contrary, they weaken themselves from not being satisfied at once, it is because they were not real desires. Anyone who has touched the Truth has been inflamed with this love. This is why David exclaims, "My soul is thirsty for the living God. When will I come and appear before the face of God? "(Ps 42: 3). And he sends us this urgent reminder: "Seek his face constantly" (Ps 105: 4). The prophet also says, "My soul has desired you during the night, and my spirit will look after you from morning to the most intimate of me" (Is 26: 9). The Church also declares in the Song of Songs, "I am wounded with love" (Ct 5, 8). It is right that the Church be healed at the sight of the Doctor, who desires it with such ardor that she carries in her heart a wound of love. So she says again: "My soul melted when my Beloved spoke." (Ct 5, 6)

The soul of one who does not seek the face of his Creator remains cold in itself and hardens in a bad way. But that she begins to burn with the desire to follow the one she loves, and here she is running, all melted by the fire of love. Tormented by desire, she comes to no longer attach value to everything that pleases her in the world; she loves nothing more than her Creator, and what previously charmed her becomes terribly unbearable. Nothing consoles her sadness until she sees the object of her desires. She grieves; the light itself is in disgust. By such a fire, the rust of his sins is stripped: like gold whose brilliance is tarnished by use, the burning soul finds its brilliance again by this burning heat.

3. This woman who loves, who leans again in the tomb which she had already examined, see to what fruit results the force of love which urges her to begin her search again: "She saw two angels dressed in white, sitting one at the head, the other at the feet of the place where the body of Jesus had been laid. "Why, in this place occupied by the body of the Lord, do these two angels appear sitting one at the head and the other at the feet, if not because the word [Greek] "angel" means in Latin "the one who announces"? Now, at the end of his Passion, it was necessary to announce the one who is at once God before the centuries and man at the end of the centuries. An angel is, so to speak, seated at the head, when the Apostle John proclaims: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn 1: 1). And an angel is, so to speak, seated at the feet, when John affirms: "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us." (Jn 1: 14)

In these two angels, we can still recognize the two Testaments: one that precedes, the other that follows. These angels are indeed connected to each other by the place occupied by the body of the Lord: since the two Testaments agree to announce an incarnated Lord, dead and risen, it is as if the Old Testament sat at the head, and the New at the feet. This is why the two cherubim who cover [their wings] the mercy seat look at each other, face to face (Ex 25, 20). Cherub means "fullness of knowledge". What can the two cherubim symbolize, if not the two Testaments? As for the mercy seat, he represents the incarnate Lord, of whom John declares: "He is a propitiation for our sins." (1 Jn 2: 2). The Old Testament announces what must be done by the Lord, and the New proclaims it, when done. They are like the two cherubim: they look at each other turning their faces towards the mercy seat. For because they see the incarnate Lord placed between them, their looks are in harmony, since they agree in all that they relate of the mystery of his plan of salvation.

4. The angels question Mary: "Woman, why are you crying?" She answers them: "Because my Lord was taken away, and I do not know where it was put." The Holy Scripture, which makes flow In us, tears of love soften them, however, when it promises us that we will see our Redeemer.

Regarding this story, note that the woman does not answer: "The body of my Lord was taken away," but: "My Lord has been taken away." The Holy Scripture sometimes expresses everything by the part, or the part by all. For example, a part means everything when it is written about the sons of Jacob: "Jacob went down to Egypt with seventy souls" (Genesis 46:27). For these souls did not go down to Egypt without their bodies! But by the soul alone, we designate the whole man, a part expressing the whole. Conversely, only the body of the Lord lay in the tomb, and yet Mary did not seek the body of the Lord, but the Lord who had been taken away, the whole designating the part.

"Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know it was Jesus." Note that Mary, who still doubted the Lord's Resurrection, had to turn to see Jesus. Because his doubt had, so to speak, turned his back on the Lord: she did not believe at all that he had risen. But because she loved and doubted at the same time, she saw him without recognizing him; love showed it to him, doubt hid it from him. Her ignorance is still expressed in the following: "She did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to him, "Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for? '"This question about the cause of his pain aims to increase his desire, so that by naming the person she is looking for, her love will burn with more ardor. "She, believing it was the gardener, said to him, 'Lord, if you took it away, tell me where you put it, and I will take it.'" It may well be that this woman, while deceiving herself, since she took Jesus for the gardener, did not really deceive herself. Was not he a gardener of the soul for her? Is it not he who sowed the seed of his love in the heart of Mary, to grow green virtues?

5. Why then, seeing the one she took for the gardener, she told him without having yet specified who she was looking for: "Lord, if it was you who carried it away ..." She speaks about him without the to have named, as if she had already designated the one whose desire caused her tears. But is it not in the soul the habitual effect of a violent love, to persuade oneself that no one is ignorant of the person to whom one constantly thinks? It is with reason that this woman, who does not say who she seeks, says however: "If it is you who carried it away ...", because it can not suppose unknown to others that a continual desire him makes cry.

"Jesus saith unto him, 'Mary!'" He called him earlier a name common to all his sex, and she did not recognize him; now he calls him by name. It is as if he clearly said to him, "Recognize therefore the one who recognizes you." It was declared to a perfect man too: "I have known you by your name" (Ex 33, 12). Man is our name common to all, Moses is a proper name, and the Lord rightly assures him that he knows him by name, as if to make it clear to him: "I know you, not in a global way like all the others, but in a very special way. "And because she is thus called by name, Mary recognizes her Creator and immediately calls her" Rabboni ", that is to say," Master. " He was at once the one she sought out, and the one inside taught her to seek.

The evangelist does not add what the woman did, but it is clear that she heard Jesus say to her, "Do not touch me, for I have not yet gone back to my Father." These words show that Mary He wanted to kiss the feet of him whom she had recognized. But the Master said to him, "Do not touch me." It is not that the Lord refuses to be touched by women after his resurrection, since it is written of the two women who came to his tomb: approached and held his embraced feet. "(Mt 28,9)

6. But the reason he should not be touched is indicated in the following: "I have not yet ascended to my Father." In our heart, indeed, Jesus goes up to his Father when we believe him equal to Father. For in the hearts of those who do not believe him to be equal to the Father, the Lord has not yet ascended to his Father. It is therefore he who believes the co-eternal Son to the Father, who really touches Jesus. Thus Jesus had already ascended to the Father in the heart of Paul, when this apostle declared: "He who was of divine condition did not consider usurpation to be the equal of God." (Ph 2, 6). John, too, touched our Redeemer from the hands of faith, since he affirmed: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were done by him "(Jn 1: 1-3). He therefore touches the Lord who believes him equal to the Father by the eternity of his substance.

But some may ask this question without expressing it: "How can the Son be equal to the Father?" Human nature is astonished, in such a matter, to be unable to understand; it remains to him the possibility of recognizing, from other astonishing subjects, that this mystery is credible. Because she has what she needs to quickly find an answer to this question. It is indeed certain that the Son created his mother, and yet it is in his virginal womb that he was created in his humanity. Why be surprised that he is equal to his Father, the one who preceded his mother? We have also learned from Paul's testimony that "Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Cor 1: 24). Thus to think that the Son is inferior to the Father is to do a peculiar wrong to the Father by proclaiming that his wisdom is not equal to him. What a powerful man would bear without flinching to come and say to him, "You are great indeed, but yet your wisdom is smaller than you." The Lord Himself declares, "The Father and I are one." (Jn 10, 30). He further states: "The Father is greater than me" (Jn 14:28), and it is also written of him: "He was subject" to his parents (Lk 2:51). How wonder, then, that the Son considers himself inferior to his Father in Heaven by virtue of his humanity, he who, through her, was already subject to his parents on earth?

It is according to this humanity that he now speaks to Mary: "Go to my brothers and say to them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." Since he says "my" then " your ", why not merge the two saying" our "? It is that such a distinction shows the difference of relationship that exists between him and us with regard to this unique Father and God. "I ascend to my Father," who is by nature, "and your Father," who is by grace. "To my God," because I came down; "To your God", because you will go up. I am a man too, so he is God for me; you are delivered from error, so he is God for you. Thus, Father and God, it is different for me, because he whom he begot as God before all ages, he has with me made man at the end of the centuries.

"Mary Magdalene went to announce to the disciples that she had seen the Lord and told him these things." Behold, the fault of the human race is destroyed in the very source from which it was taken. Since in heaven, it is a woman who has poured out the man [the poison of] death, it is also a woman who, coming from the tomb, announces life to men. And the one that records the words of him who vivifies is the one who brought back the deadly words of the serpent. The Lord seems to want to use not the language of words, but of the language of facts, to tell the human race: "From the hand that handed you the drink of death, yes, from this same hand, receive the cup of life . "

7. We briefly commented on the text of this gospel; now, with the help of the same Lord of whom we speak, let us consider the glory of his Resurrection and the tenderness of his paternal love. He wanted to get up from death in haste, so that our soul does not stay long in the death of unbelief. So the psalmist says very aptly: "At the torrent, he drinks on the way; therefore he raises his head "(Ps 110: 7). In the human race, from the very beginning of the world, a torrent of death had spread; but at this torrent, the Lord has watered on the way, because he has tasted death only by passing. He also straightened his head, because in dying he had laid in the tomb, resurrecting, he raised him above the angels. And even where he allowed the hands of his persecutors to exercise their fury against him for a moment, he struck the ancient enemy for eternity. This is what the Lord clearly indicates to Blessed Job: "And Leviathan, will you fish it with the hook?" (Jb 40, 25)

8. Leviathan, whose name means "Add-to-them", refers to that sea-monster who devours the human race: he who, by promising to "add" the deity to him, stripped him of his immortality. It is he also who has suggested the fault of treason to the first man, and who, by engaging those who follow him by a detestable persuasion, accumulates upon them pain on pain.

On a hook, the bait is shown, but the sting is hidden. The Almighty Father thus caught Leviathan on the hook by sending to death his only Incarnate Son, in which were joined the flesh accessible to suffering, which could be seen, and the divinity inaccessible to suffering, that we could not see. And when, by the persecutors of the Lord interposed, the serpent bit into the bait of the body in Christ, the sting of the deity pierced him. At first, the monster had recognized in his miracles that Jesus was God, but to see this God so liable made him doubt what he had first recognized. Like a hook that attracts a voracious animal by a piece of apparent flesh, then clings to the throat of who swallowed it, the divinity hid in the time of the Passion to carry a mortal blow. The monster let himself be caught by the hook of the Incarnation: baited by the body, he was pierced by the sting of the deity. There stood humanity to attract to it the voracious animal; there was divinity to pierce him. There was weakness to attract [the kidnapper]; there was hidden the strength that would grip his throat. He was caught on the hook, since it was by biting that he perished. He lost mortals, who belonged to him in law, for having dared to demand the death of an immortal, over whom he had no right.

9. If this Mary of whom we speak is alive, it is because the Lord, who owed nothing to death, has accepted to die for the human race. And ourselves, who gives us daily return to life after our sins, if not the sinless Creator, who came down to suffer our chastisement? Yes, the ancient enemy has now let go of the spoils he had taken on the human race. He lost [the fruit of] his tricky victory. Every day, sinners come back to life; every day they are torn from his mouth by the hand of the Redeemer. So it is rightly that the voice of the Lord still asks the blessed Job: "Will you pierce your jaw with a ring?" (Jb 40, 26). A ring encircles and tightens what it is closed on. What does this ring mean, if not the divine mercy that envelops us? She pierces Leviathan's jaw as she continues to show us the remedy of penance after she sees us doing what she defends. The Lord pierces with a ring the jaw of Leviathan: in the ineffable power of his mercy, he opposes the wickedness of the ancient enemy by sometimes forcing him to release even those he already held. When those who have sin return to innocence, it is as if they are falling from the monster's jaws. And if this mouth was not pierced, who among those he once engulfed, would escape? Did not he hold Peter in his mouth, when he denied [his Master]? Did not he hold David in his mouth when he plunged into such an abyss of lust? But when they both came back to life through penance, it's a little as if Leviathan had released them through the hole in his jaw. Peter and David escaped his mouth through the hole of his jaw, when after doing so much evil, they returned to good doing penance.

What man can escape the mouth of Leviathan, by not committing any fault? It is there that we recognize all that we owe to the Redeemer of the human race! He not only forbade us to throw ourselves into the mouth of Leviathan, but he allowed us to come out again. He did not take away the hope from the sinner, for he pierced the jaw of the monster to leave a way of escape there: thus, the imprudent one who did not want to take in advance the precautions avoiding him to be Bitten, can at least escape after the bite. Heavenly medicine comes to our aid everywhere: it gives man precepts so that he does not sin, and if he has sinned anyway, she gives him remedies so that he does not despair. Let us fear, above all, to let ourselves be caught in the jaws of this Leviathan by the attraction of sin; and yet, if we are caught there, let us not despair: if we mourn all our sins well, we will find in our jaws an opening through which we escape.

10. Mary, the one we are talking about, may here appear as a witness of the divine mercy, concerning whom the Pharisee, wishing to prevent the outpouring of goodness, said: "If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what what a species is this woman that touches him, and that he is a sinner "(Lk 7:39). But she washed away the taints of her heart and body with her tears, and touched the feet of her Redeemer, abandoning her wicked ways. She was sitting at the feet of Jesus, and she listened to the word of her mouth. She had attached herself to the living Jesus; she was looking for her, she found alive the one she was looking for dead. And grace made him occupy such a place near him that it was she who carried his message to the apostles, his messengers in title.

What must we see in this, my brethren, what must we see except the immense mercy of our Creator, who gives us as an example of penance those whom he has revived through penance after their fall? I cast my eyes on Peter, I consider the thief, I examine Zacchaeus, I look at Mary, and I see everywhere only examples of hope and penance exposed to our eyes. Look at Peter, whose faith, perhaps, has failed. He wept bitterly over the cowardice of his denial. Look at the thief, you who burned with wickedness and cruelty against your neighbor: about to die, yet he repented and reached the rewards of life. Look at Zacchaeus, you who, devoured by an ardent avarice, stripped others: he gave back the quadruple to those whom he could steal. Look at Mary, you who, consumed by the fire of an evil desire, have lost the purity of the flesh: she has burned carnal love in her with the fire of divine love.

It is thus that Almighty God puts us everywhere before the eyes of models to imitate, that everywhere he offers us examples of his mercy. Let us take abhorrence of the bad actions, even those we have committed. Almighty God willingly forgets that we have been guilty; he is ready to count our penance for innocence. If we are defiled after the salutary waters [of baptism], let us come back to tears. And according to the words of the first Pastor, "as newly born children, long for milk" (1 Pet 2: 2). Come back, little children, into your mother's womb, eternal wisdom; suck the generous breasts of God's tenderness; mourn your past faults, avoid those that threaten you. Our Redeemer will comfort your tears by one eternal joy, who, being God, lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

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1 The aerial sky, which surrounds the earth (the atmosphere), is itself enveloped by the ethereal sky (ether). According to St Basil (4th century), the ethereal sky is a place created well before the visible world, and therefore completely distinct from the aerial sky that we see (see Hom 1 in Hexæmeron, 5, PG 29, 13).

2 Homo purus: a man who is only man, who is not both man and God as Christ.

3 "We keep it as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm, this hope that penetrates beyond the veil, into the sanctuary where Jesus entered for us as a precursor." (He 6, 19-20 )