2022/12/19

70. Enter by the Narrow Gate

In the New Testament, there are three narratives about three people who took over God's plan. They are Joseph, who took Mary together with her child Jesus in her womb; the Apostle John, who took Jesus' mother to his home by the cross; and Mary Magdalene, who declared in the presence of the risen Jesus that she would take away Jesus' body. And by the cross of Jesus were the Apostle John and Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the wife of Clopas, was also there, replacing Joseph, who had already died. These people embody the "my church" (Matthew 16:18), which Jesus said he would build on the words that his heavenly Father revealed to Peter. The three who bathed in his blood and water that poured out from the side of Jesus on the cross are witnesses to the new covenant between God and man. So, these three are called to their different roles and bear the names that represent their vocation. 

Clopas' wife, in the "my church" of Jesus, bears the name of Joseph in order to take over the role of Joseph, who, together with Mary, protected and nurtured Jesus. Mary Magdalene, who declared to take the body of Jesus, bears the name of Jesus so that she may take over the role of the human Jesus, who served his parents on the earth, and served his mother after Joseph's death. So, some women, inspired by the image of that name, may feel that they have a priestly vocation, but that is a mistake. As will be noted next, the priestly vocation belongs to the Apostle John, who took the mother of Jesus to his home. As a priest working with the Holy Spirit, who witnesses to the Word, the Apostle John bears the name of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in order to succeed the role of Mary, whom the Holy Spirit descended upon for the first time and the power of the Most High overshadowed. Jesus, on the cross, united his mother and the Apostle in a parent-child bond to guarantee that fact. Jesus sent Peter and John together to prepare the Passover meal (cf. Luke 22:8), which shows that the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is to be borne together with Peter. After the Holy Spirit came down, the two prayed and worked together always (cf. Acts 3:1-4:31, 8:14-25). 

These vocational ways may seem to be hard to understand to some people, as Jesus said, "For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Matthew 7:14). Nevertheless, Jesus tells us to "enter by the narrow gate" (Matthew 7:13). When we look at people today in the 21st century, individual differences are more visible and prominent than gender differences. I heard that is because masculinity and femininity that co-exist in each brain are now well balanced. Once accustomed to this understanding, the logic of the Christian vocation described above is not so difficult to accept. The way that led the Church to today's catastrophic situation we have previously discussed has been laid by many who viewed the relationship with God, the true parent of man, in the image of marriage. Such a view bore witness to the following words of Jesus: "the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many" (Matthew 7:13).

Maria K. M.