20240722 MOVEMENT FROM SACRAMENTAL TO MYSTICAL LOVE
22 July 2024, Monday, St Mary Magdalene
First reading |
Song of Songs 3:1-4 |
I found him whom my heart loves
The bride says this:
On my bed, at night, I sought him
whom my heart loves.
I sought but did not find him.
So I will rise and go through the City;
in the streets and in the squares
I will seek him whom my heart loves.
I sought but did not find him.
The watchmen came upon me
on their rounds in the City:
‘Have you seen him whom my heart loves?’
Scarcely had I passed them
when I found him whom my heart loves.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 62(63):2-6,8-9 |
For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord my God.
O God, you are my God, for you I long;
for you my soul is thirsting.
My body pines for you
like a dry, weary land without water.
For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord my God.
So I gaze on you in the sanctuary
to see your strength and your glory.
For your love is better than life,
my lips will speak your praise.
For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord my God.
So I will bless you all my life,
in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul shall be filled as with a banquet,
my mouth shall praise you with joy.
For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord my God.
For you have been my help;
in the shadow of your wings I rejoice.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand holds me fast.
For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord my God.
Gospel Acclamation |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Tell us, Mary: say
what thou didst see upon the way.
– The tomb the Living did enclose;
I saw Christ’s glory as he rose!
Alleluia!
The following reading is proper to the memorial, and must be used even if you have otherwise chosen to use the ferial readings.
Gospel |
John 20:1-2,11-18 |
'Mary, go and find the brothers and tell them'
It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb’ she said ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’
Meanwhile Mary stayed outside near the tomb, weeping. Then, still weeping, she stooped to look inside, and saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head, the other at the feet. They said, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ ‘They have taken my Lord away’ she replied ‘and I don’t know where they have put him.’ As she said this she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not recognise him. Jesus said, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and remove him.’ Jesus said, ‘Mary!’ She knew him then and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbuni!’ – which means Master. Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go and find the brothers, and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ So Mary of Magdala went and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her.
MOVEMENT FROM SACRAMENTAL TO MYSTICAL LOVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [SONG 3:1-4, or 2 COR 5:14-17; PS 63: 2-6, 8-9; JN 20: 1-2, 11-18]
Why is there a lack of fervour in the faith today? Sad to say, many have left the Church but those who stay are lukewarm and tepid in their faith. Many lack evangelical zeal and the desire and enthusiasm to spread the Good News about Jesus. The practice of faith is reduced to the practice of religion. It has become a routine in life. It has even become an iron rice bowl for those in priestly and religious life. No wonder, so many have left the Church or some have joined other religions or Protestant churches where faith seems to be more alive and vibrant.
The cause of the indifference towards the faith is due to a lack of the consciousness of the love of God in our lives. Rationalism is the first cause for distancing from God. With the emphasis on science and reasoning, there is a tendency towards rationalism. Our faith in God is very much on the level of intellectual knowledge rather an affective experience of His love. Theologians can be very knowledgeable in theology but yet lack a real faith in Christ because of the lack of a conscious experience of His personal love. The danger for those who are engaged in theological study is that they think they know about God’s love and yet in truth they do not know it in their personal life. It is a deceptive way of pretending to know a lot about God.
The second reason is activism. Many are very active in the apostolate and in the ministry. Today, the emphasis is on work and activities. People are afraid to stay still and do nothing. We must always be doing something, and multi-tasking as well. We are afraid of silence and contemplation. So we are busy with our projects and activities, doing things for people and for the Church. It is all about output without any input. As a consequence, we become edgy and irritable when overworked. We begin to focus on results and efficiency and no longer on the needs of the people. It is not surprising that many who are involved in Church ministry, or those in priestly life become jaded, lose interest and enthusiasm after a while and instead engage in squabbling over rules and control.
The third reason is the loss of the Sacred. They lack devotion and the presence of the sacred. Religious things are reduced to the level of the profane. Many no longer respect the sacredness of the Church, the Eucharist, or the sacramentals. Holy things are treated with irreverence. When the line between the sacred and profane is blurred, there is no sense of God’s presence. This is not to say that they are so clearly distinguished, for we know that God could also be found in ordinary things and the ordinary events of life as well. But to arrive at this realization, we must begin with the experience of God in the sacred. Without a real encounter of the Sacred, we can no longer feel the presence of God in our lives.
When we read the bible or study the history of the Church, the growth of the Church was always the result of people and charismatic leaders who were deeply in love with Christ and for His people. In the Old Testament, it was the great love for God in leaders like Moses, King David and the prophets that the faith was kept. The prophets, Elijah, Jeremiah, Hosea and Isaiah, were all consumed by their love for God. During the time of Christ, it was His deep love and intimacy with His Father that was the motivating factor in His mission. It was for the love of His Father that Christ emptied Himself in the incarnation. During the time of the apostles, it was their love for the Lord that made them give up their life to follow Jesus in the mission. They were willing to abandon their family and trade to follow after Jesus.
In the gospel today, we read of Mary Magdalene’s deep devotion to the Lord. Love enabled her to do all things. When we are in love with someone, there is nothing that can prevent us from giving ourselves to that person. When we love, we are consumed by love. Mary Magdalene was so in love with the Lord she could not wait for the sun to rise to visit Him in the grave. When she arrived in the dark, the stone was already moved away. Without checking inside the tomb, her fear was that His body was taken away. And later when the angels asked her why she was weeping, she was so absorbed in her attachment to Jesus’ body that she only could say that the body was taken away. And when Jesus spoke to her, thinking that He was the gardener said, “Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and remove him.” She never thought for a while how she was going to remove a dead body, which was no doubt beyond her strength, all by herself! The point is that when we are deeply in love, we are moved to do things beyond human imagination, using all our energy and might.
Isn’t this true for all the saints and the missionaries of the early Church and those before the 18th century? Many of them, for the love of Jesus and their fellowmen, would leave their homeland to far distant countries to spread the gospel. Many were persecuted and killed or died because of hunger, poverty, poor hygiene and illnesses. Many died as martyrs for their faith, after being cruelly tortured for their belief. Saints like St Francis of Assisi left everything and sold all he had for the poor and lived in simplicity because of his love for the Lord. St Francis Xavier travelled to the Far East to spread the gospel. Indeed, the Church in the East, Africa and in South America was the result of the sacrifices of the missionaries. This was why St Theresa of the Child Jesus remarked, “I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was aflame with Love. I understood that Love alone stirred the members of the Church to act… I understood that Love encompassed all vocations, that Love was everything”.
However, their love for Christ and His Church came from a prior experience of His love for them. It is not that we love Him but that He loved us first. This is what St Paul wrote about his passion for Christ and the gospel. In the letter to the Corinthians, he said, “The love of Christ overwhelms us when we reflect that if one man has died for all, then all men should be dead; and the reason he died for all was so that living men should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life for them.” (2 Cor 5:14f) St John also reiterated the primacy of God’s love for us. “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.” (1 Jn 4:10)
For this reason, if we want to renew the fervour of the faith of our Catholics, we must lead them to a personal experience of Christ’s love for them. We need to renew our thirst for the Lord’s love as the Bride did in the Book of Song of Songs. She cried out, “On my bed, at night, I sought him whom my heart loves. I sought but did not find him. So I will rise and go through the City; in the streets and the squares I will seek him whom my heart loves. I sought but did not find him.” The responsorial psalm also speaks of this thirst for God in his life. “O God, you are my God, for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water. So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory. For your love is better than life, my lips will speak your praise.”
But it must proceed from the way of human love before we can arrive at mystical love. There is a danger of Catholics who lack the experience of God’s love but seek a mystical encounter with Him, bypassing the humanity of Christ through some kind of centering prayer. It has always been the teaching of the Church and of the mystics that the only way to encounter the mystical Lord is through the humanity of Christ. Hence, it is important to recount how Mary Magdalene made the progress from loving the Jesus of Nazareth before reaching the maturity of loving the Christ of Faith. The reason why Mary Magdalene could not find the Lord was because she was still attached to the earthly Jesus of Nazareth.
So Jesus invited her to transcend the level of sensual love to a spiritual love for Him. He said to her, “Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go and find the brothers, and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” St Paul in the same vein urged the Christians to do likewise. “From now onwards, therefore, we do not judge anyone by the standards of the flesh. Even if we did once know Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know him now. And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here.”
In other words, whilst spiritual life begins with an encounter with the Lord through the human way, that is, by tangible and sacramental means, yet we must not just cling to such devotions. There are many of these devotions, charismatic worship, healing services, Divine Mercy, Novenas and devotions to the saints in the Church. They are not to be despised or thought to be for the uneducated. Such devotions help us to cultivate a human love for God and the saints. It helps us to experience their love affectively. But if our love for the Lord is just focused on devotions and the sacramentals, we can become overly superstitious. Nevertheless, they are important means to lead us to into a deeper encounter with the Lord in contemplative prayer, in silence and in charity. In the final analysis, the height of love for God is both a contemplative and mystical experience of His love leading us to share His love with others.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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