2025/01/13
178. The Prophesied One Part 3
The memory of St Francis found in his writings, as well as the description of his biography, urge us to advance in faith with the truths revealed in them. Francis was prophesied as a man whose eyes gazed open at Jesus on the cross in the San Damiano Crucifix (cf. blog № 174). The fact that he received the Stigmata and embodied Mary Magdalene's words, "I will take him away", and that he had received the diaconate were crucial clues to understanding the vocations in the Church.
"Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father" (Jn 20:17), Jesus said to Mary Magdalene because she was a woman. It was appropriate that John the Evangelist inserted this scene because the teachings of Jesus Christ were received by male and female disciples on an equal footing, allowing them to live the "vocation of Jesus", which, therefore, could have created the illusion that women were to receive the priesthood in the same way as men.
Mary Magdalene, who stood by the cross of Jesus and was present when Jesus united His mother and the disciple whom he loved in a parent-child bond, became the witness to the fact that the Apostles, who were men, were made conjoined with the priesthood in an undivided bond by the words of Jesus on the cross. She also testified in the scene of his resurrection that she had the "vocation of Jesus" by declaring to the risen Jesus that she would take away his body. Then Jesus said, "Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father". These words were intended to admonish the women who would be called to the "vocation of Jesus" after her to let go of their clinging to Jesus, to give up their attachment to the body of Christ, who had not yet ascended to the Father, and to take a step towards the Holy Spirit, so that they would have no illusion about the priesthood.
Jesus continued, commanding Mary Magdalene, "[G]o to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God" (Jn 20:17). Without hesitation, she "went and said to the disciples, 'I have seen the Lord'; and she told them that he had said these things to her" (20:18). This prepared the disciples, who had locked the door of the house they were in for fear of the Jews, for Jesus' visit.
That evening, they had locked the doors of their house, but Jesus came and stood in the middle. And he said twice, "Peace be with you". That was to give them the authority to forgive sins before sending them to their mission. The Gospel of Matthew says, "Peter said to him, 'Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.' And so said all the disciples" (Mat 26:35). The Apostles, beginning with Peter, were testifying that they would never abandon Jesus. However, when the disciples saw Jesus' Passion, they all fled, and Peter denied Jesus three times, saying he did not know him. If each of them does not first forgive themselves, they will not be able to witness to Jesus. In other words, they cannot go on their mission. This episode is the third of the seven episodes described in the scene of the resurrection of the Lord in the Gospel of John.
In the fourth episode, Jesus appears to the Apostle Thomas, who did not believe that the risen Jesus had come, and says: "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing" (Jn 20:27). These words are in contrast to his admonition to Mary Magdalene: "Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father". That happened because Thomas was one of the Apostles conjoined with the priesthood.
As Jesus went on to say to Thomas, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe" (20:29), a priest who is to touch the bread and wine specially prepared to be the body of Christ has the blessing of "those who have not seen and yet believe". John the Evangelist explains that "these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name" (20:31). He is saying that the priest himself, who raises the Eucharist, and the congregation around the altar with him, are to believe and confess that the Eucharist is "the Christ, the Son of God" and to receive life in the name of Jesus.
To be continued.
Maria K. M.