A novena preparing for the Feast of Saints Ann and Joachim, the parents of Mary, the mother of Jesus, July 26 began on July 17, reminding us of the role parents and grandparents play in raising children. Some years ago I visited the ancient temple ruins in Jerusalem where Jewish women were fervently praying with their daughters before the temple’s western wall.
Ann and her daughter Mary must have prayed here too.
The picture above, at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, is a model of the temple from Jesus’ time. Tradition says Ann and Joachim, parents of Mary, were closely associated with the temple and may have lived nearby. An ancient church honoring St. Ann stands today near the Pool of Bethesda, near the temple. There, a paralyzed man was healed by Jesus. (John 5, 1-18) That’s the church in the ruins below.
Church of St. Ann, Jerusalem
A statue of Ann and her daughter Mary is in the Jerusalem church. Ann is teaching her daughter at her side.
What is she teaching her? Some statues show her teaching Mary the scriptures, but I’ve seen a statue, like the one below, showing Ann teaching her the ABCs and numbers. That’s what parents and grandparents do, isn’t it? They teach children life’s basics: how to live and how to pray.
Cathedral, Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Still true today. We put the little statue below of the two of them under our chapel altar for the novena. Parents and grandparents, the next generation is at your side. Ann and Joachim pray for us; show us the way.
St. Bridget of Sweden, whose feast is July 23rd, was a 14th century mystic who challenged the powerful of her day, first the court of Sweden and later the papacy. She influenced Christian spirituality and art.
Born into a powerful Swedish family with ties to the royal court. Bridget married Ulf Gudmarrson when she was 14. They had 8 children, one of whom is also honored as a saint, Catherine of Sweden. Bridget was known for the care she took of the sick around her. In visiting the sick she took her children, to teach them this work of mercy.
As a child of 10 Bridget was attracted to the mystery of the Passion of Jesus and that mystery inspired her prayer and spirituality ever afterwards. This mystery made her fearless in challenging injustice when she saw it. Bridget protested the wanton living of Swedish royalty and its uncaring attitude towards the poor. After her husband’s death in 1334 she founded a religious community, continuing to speak out fearlessly against the lifestyle and privileges of the powerful.
In 1350 Bridget went to Rome to gain approval for her Order of the Most Holy Savior, the Brigittines. There she confronted the papacy. The pope , fearing the turmoil in the Papal States, had fled to in Avignon in France. Bridget urged him to return to Rome. The pope was a shepherd, she said; he should be with his sheep, especially in times of turmoil.
Bridget’s prayers and revelations, widely circulated in her time, were reminders of what Jesus said and did, especially the example he gave in his Passion. She inspired people to meditate on the mysteries of Christ for their wisdom.
She inspired artists in their portrayals of the mysteries of Christ. In one of her visions she saw Mary and Joseph adoring the Child lying on the ground. Incarnate, he made the earth his home. Previously in art, Mary was portrayed at the crib, lying down after giving birth. In Bridget’s portrayal she joins Joseph, the shepherds (humanity) and the earth itself adoring the Word made flesh.
Adoration of the Child, Giorgione, 1507, National Gallery, Washington
Bridget also inspired the portrayal of Mary holding the body of Jesus after his crucifixion and the devotion of the Pieta. Cradling him in her arms,, she recalls holding him at his birth in Bethlehem, Bridget said.
Rhine Valley, 14th century
In 1371, Bridget and some of her family went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land; her vivid accounts from there further stimulated the religious imagination of her contemporaries. On July 23, 1373 she died in Rome. Bridget is a patron of Sweden and of Europe.
The church always needs strong women like Bridget, firm in faith and unafraid to speak out. Society too needs women like her in politics and business to steer its course into the future.
Our church today seems to be alive with visionaries, people who claim God has revealed something to them. Bridget was always aware of the possibility that her visions could come from another source rather than God. She prayed to be saved from delusions and pride. This 15th century Swedish painting depicts Satan trying to influence her, but is hit over the head by an angel.
Prayer of St. Bridget
Jesus, true and fruitful Vine! Remember the abundant outpouring of blood shed from your sacred body as juice from grapes in a wine press. From your side, pierced with a lance by a soldier, blood and water poured out until not a single drop was left in your body.
Through your bitter Passion and your precious blood poured out, receive my soul when I come to die. Amen.
O good Jesus! Pierce my heart so that my tears of penance and love will be my bread day and night; may I be converted entirely to you, may my heart be your home, may my conversation please you, may I merit heaven at the end of my life and be with you and your saints, to praise you forever. Amen
In 2016, Pope Francis raised the liturgical celebration of Mary Magdalene, July 22, from a memorial to a feast and directed she be referred to as an “Apostle to the apostles”. Today, the pope said, we must recognize more fully the dignity of women and their role in bringing the gospel to the world. Mary Magdalene is an example.
Gregory the Great, an early pope, got it wrong when he identified Mary Magdalene with Mary, the sister of Lazarus and the sinful women in Luke 7: 33ff, who washed Jesus’ feet. She is neither one. She was a star witness at his resurrection. Unfortunately, Gregory’s picture of Mary influenced the way western Christianity saw Mary. The eastern Christian churches, for the most part, have not seen her that way.
The composite view of Mary Magdalene in the western church could be found until recently in the Tridentine mass texts for her feast. The collect identified her as Mary of Bethany and the gospel was the story from Luke of the penitent woman anointing Jesus’ feet. That picture of her is often found in western Christian art.
Instead of the gospel of the sinful woman, our present lectionary offers John’s account of the appearance of Jesus to Mary after his resurrection. (John 20:1-18)
Unfortunately some recently, using flimsy evidence from 3rd and 4th century gnostic writings, want to “de-mythologize” Jesus and romanticize his relationship with Mary. Some even claim he was married to her. Their claims have been sensationalized in the media and unfortunately get a wide hearing.
Better to listen to the four gospels, especially St. Luke’s Gospel, and the evidence of the New Testament. They see Mary as a disciple among other important woman followers of Jesus who loved him. Their witness is older and more reliable. There’s also new archeological evidence about Magdala, Mary’s hometown, that helps us understand Mary Magdalene. Take a look.
Yet, Gregory the Great’s description of Mary’s spirituality is right on. Here’s an excerpt from his beautiful sermon in today’s Liturgy of the Hours:
“We should reflect on Mary’s attitude and the great love she felt for Christ; for though the disciples had left the tomb, she remained. She was still seeking the one she had not found, and while she sought she wept; burning with the fire of love, she longed for him who she thought had been taken away. And so it happened that the woman who stayed behind to seek Christ was the only one to see him. For perseverance is essential to any good deed, as the voice of truth tells us: Whoever perseveres to the end will be saved.
“At first she sought but did not find, but when she persevered it happened that she found what she was looking for. When our desires are not satisfied, they grow stronger, and becoming stronger they take hold of their object. Holy desires likewise grow with anticipation, and if they do not grow they are not really desires. Anyone who succeeds in attaining the truth has burned with such a great love. As David says: My soul has thirsted for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God? And so also in the Song of Songs the Church says: I was wounded by love; and again: My soul is melted with love.
“Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek? She is asked why she is sorrowing so that her desire might be strengthened; for when she mentions whom she is seeking, her love is kindled all the more ardently.
“Jesus says to her: Mary. Jesus is not recognized when he calls her “woman”; so he calls her by name, as though he were saying: Recognize me as I recognize you; for I do not know you as I know others; I know you as yourself. And so Mary, once addressed by name, recognizes who is speaking. She immediately calls him rabboni, that is to say, teacher, because the one whom she sought outwardly was the one who inwardly taught her to keep on searching.”
Here’s Pope Francis on Jesus’ words to Mary in the garden, “Do not cling to me.”
“It is specifically in the garden of the resurrection that the Lord says to Mary Magdalene: “Do not hold on to me”. This is an invitation directed not only to Mary, but also to the entire Church, to enter into an experience of faith that surpasses any materialistic appropriation or human understanding of the divine mystery. A disciple of Jesus is not to seek human securities and worldly titles, but faith in the Living and Risen Christ! “
The article on Mary Magdalene in Wikipedia deals extensively, and generally fairly, with the interpretations of Mary in religious and popular culture through history. She is an importance reference for recognizing women’s role in the world and in the church today. An importance saint to know.
Our readings from St. Matthew this week deal with the growing opposition to Jesus as he preaches and performs miracles in Galilee. IT foreshadows his final rejection in Jerusalem. Concluding this section, Matthew adds another source of opposition to Jesus that may surprise us. His own family from Nazareth seems to oppose him.
“While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. [Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.”]*But he said in reply to the one who told him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Matthew 12,47-50)
A little about family life at the time of Jesus may help us appreciate this gospel. For one thing, in Jesus’ day nuclear families– a mother, father and children living alone– were not the norm. In Jesus day families were extended families or clans, living and working together.
And so, the picture we sometimes have of the Holy Family– Mary, Joseph and the Child Jesus all by themselves in a small house in Nazareth– is not a realistic picture. Families in Nazareth, as we know from excavations in towns like Capernaum, lived in compounds, as they often do today in the Middle East, working together in the fields or in a business and offering each other support.
There were obligations to your extended family or clan. Everyone had to help in the harvest; you were expected to promote your family’s interest. The mother of James and John approaching Jesus looking for a good place for her sons in his kingdom was only doing what she was expected to do.
What we see in this gospel is the extended family of Jesus descending on him as he speaks to the crowds to remind him of his family obligations. What did they want to remind him of, we wonder? Were they off to a wedding or a funeral of a relative and were telling him to come along? Or, was the wheat harvest ready at Nazareth and they came looking for help? Or, they just wanted him for themselves for awhile? From Mark’s gospel we know some thought he was out of his mind.
Whatever it was, Jesus said that his family was those before him h meant to be with them. “ I belong here now,” Jesus seems to be saying to them. The kingdom of God, God’s family, God’s purpose, is greater than his family’s interests.
Today, of course, individualism is our predominant value, and it often stands in the way of family interests. It’s what “I” want that counts. But even today, family interests, family pressure can be strong and can get in the way of what God wants. Sometimes those closest to us, our own family, can be hard to manage, even though they want the best for us.
Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” He said to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and there is something greater than Jonah here. At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here.” (Matthew 12:38-42)
The story of Jonah, our reading today, often appears over the remains of someone deceased in the Christian catacombs of early Rome. The whole story is usually there, from Jonah getting thrown off the boat, to being swallowed up by the whale, to Jonah sitting in the shade of the vine. Why?
The early Christians recognized the wisdom in the stories of the Jewish scriptures much more than we do today, I think. They must have seen themselves and their loved ones who passed on as “the men of Nineveh”, people of the great city of Rome, who heard the preaching of Jesus and believed.
He had the power to bring them life. They believed in the mystery of the One who was three days and three nights in the earth and rose again.
Chapters 12-13 of Mathew’s gospel continue to describe the opposition Jesus faces from the from the scribes and Pharisees . (Monday) The towns and cities that once welcomed him begin also to wonder about him. His family from Nazareth come to speak to him, most likely to take him home. (Tuesday)
Jesus responds to the opposition with a series of parables, beginning with the parable of the sower. (Friday)
We’re continuing to read from the Prophet Micah this week. A contemporary of Isaiah, he is not a priest, but may be one of the immigrants from the Northern Kingdom who tried to resettle in Judea. Micah champions the cause of immigrants and promises that God will be merciful to the Jews of the north. (Monday-Tuesday)
On Thursday we begin reading from the Prophet Jeremiah. Born about 650 into a priestly family, Jeremiah preached to the Kingdom of Judah during its final tumultuous days before the Babylonians captured Jerusalem in 598 BC and took away its leading citizens into exile in Babylon.
Jeremiah wasn’t accepted during his lifetime and\ suffered for his preaching. His influence grew only after his death as Jewish exiles reflected on his words and actions. He’s seen as a figure of Jesus who also suffered rejection.
We celebrate the feast of Mary Magdalen this week. (Wednesday) Her feast, as “an apostle to the apostles” was raised in importance by Pope Francis from a memorial to a feast. We celebrate the Apostle James, one of the “sons of Zebedee” on Saturday,
We’re reading in our lectionary from the prophet Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah.Unlike Isaiah, , he was not from the priestly caste, but was an ordinary Jew. Micah lived in the southern kingdom of Judea in the 8th century when Assyrian armies destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and began deporting many of its people to Assyria.
Archeologists and historians think a good number of people from the northern kingdom immigrated south to Judea at this time and eventually they contributed to its growth. But first, they needed land and houses to live in. Was Micah one of the immigrants? Micah warns Judea’s wealthy class against treating the new immigrants badly.
Woe to those who plan iniquity… They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and they take them; They cheat an owner of his house, a man of his inheritance. (Micah 2, 1-6)
The same people whom God led out of Egypt and gave land to freely are gouging the poor immigrants:
O my people, what have I done to you, or how have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, from the place of slavery I released you;
Prophets like Micah called for social justice. They raised up issues that don’t go out of date. We need prophetic voices to raise them up today in a society increasingly anti-immigrant. Housing, immigration, unfair real estate practices?
You have been told what’s good, what the LORD requires of you: Only do justice and love goodness and walk humbly with your God. (Micah 8:8)
“But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah,least among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient times.”Micah 5: 1-2. Matthew’s Gospel (2: 5-6) reports that the chief priests and scribes cite this passage from Micah as a promise that a messiah in the line of David will be born in Bethlehem.
Micah 5:1-4 is also the first reading for the Feast of the Birth of Mary, September 8, and one of the readings for the common of feasts of Mary.
The 11th and 12th chapters of Matthew’s gospel which we’re reading this 15th week of the year describe a growing opposition to Jesus after he begins his ministry in Galilee. It’s a dark section of the gospel.
The Pharisees now take “counsel against him to put him to death” and begin to oppose him. (Matthew 12.14) They’re not satisfied with his teachings and his miracles and demand a sign. They’re joined by the Herodians, agents of Herod Antipas, ruler in Galilee. The political establishment joins the opposition.
Jesus is also opposed by “this generation” of Israelites, the towns “where most of his mighty deeds had been done,” Corazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum. (Matthew 11,16-19) The towns that first welcomed him enthusiastically now dismiss him.
Finally, another group, who may surprise us, appear to oppose him – his family from Nazareth. (Matthew 12,47-50) All together, this opposition must have affected Jesus, as he faced the fickleness of humanity and even those closest to him.
But it also must have affected his disciples as well, who joined him expecting to see God’s kingdom come. I think they’re among those whom Jesus prays for in the gospel read today and tomorrow:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
His first disciples were not wise or learned, they were more like children excited by what they saw Jesus do and say. They were struck by the miracles he worked and the wisdom he taught in parables. Yet, they would have been affected by the growing rejection to him.
Are we like them in a time like ours, when he in the church he founded meets so much rejection? The Lord prays for us too, little children not wise or clever.
You would expect a great theologian like St. Bonaventure (July 15) to tell you to hit the books if you would want to go to God. After all, his treatise we read on his feast is called “The Journey of the Mind to God.”
Instead he directs us to Christ and the Cross as our way to God.
” If you ask how such things can occur, seek the answer in God’s grace, not in doctrine; in the longing of the will, not in the understanding; in the sighs of prayer, not in research; seek the bridegroom not the teacher; God and not man; darkness not daylight; and look not to the light but rather to the raging fire that carries the soul to God with intense fervour and glowing love.”
A shelf of scripture commentaries and theology books wont bring us wisdom of themselves, St. Bonaventure says in his Breviloquium, otherwise only scholars would enter the kingdom of heaven. That’s not to say study isn’t important and scholars and scientists are not necessary. Bonaventure was a great theologian, but he knew we must be humble before God and the divine plan that’s beyond our grasp.
“The stream of holy Scripture flows not from human research but from revelation by God. It springs from the Father of lights, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth takes its name. From him, through his Son Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit flows into us; and through the Holy Spirit, giving, at will, different gifts to different people, comes the gift of faith, and through faith Jesus Christ has his dwelling in our hearts. This is the knowledge of Jesus Christ which is the ultimate basis of the solidity and wisdom of the whole of holy Scripture…
If we are to follow the direct path of Scripture and come straight to the final destination, then right from the beginning – when simple faith starts to draw us towards the light of the Father – our hearts should kneel down and ask the Father to give us, through his Son and the Holy Spirit, true knowledge of Jesus and of his love. Once we know him and love him like this, we shall be made firm in faith and deeply rooted in love, and we can know the breadth, length, depth and height of holy Scripture.”
