At early morning on the first day of the week while still dark, Mary of Magdala went to the tomb of Jesus. She carried burial clothes and spices so Jesus can be buried properly in accordance with Jewish custom.
The huge stone across the entrance of the tomb was removed. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and other disciples, and said: “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they put Him” (John:20:13).
Love in action
After Jesus had driven away the demons that dwelt in Mary of Magdala, she followed Jesus and became his devoted follower.
Called the “Apostle of the Apostles,” she accompanied Jesus on the way to Calvary, unafraid, unmindful of the crowd at a time when it was dangerous to be identified as Jesus’ follower, more so associated as a disciple who accompanied Jesus during his teachings.
She was unaffected by the unruly Roman soldiers, volatile crowds of differing temperaments that could crush her to death. She stood at the foot of the cross with Saint John the Beloved and the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was with Jesus during his dying moments. Her love for Jesus knew no bounds.
An emptying love
After God created the heavens and the Earth, He created man, “crowned him with glory and honor and ruled over the Earth” (Psalm 8:6-7). But man never tacitly reciprocated God’s love. To exemplify the meaning of love, God became man except in sin to redeem men and make them worthy of heaven.
Jesus taught men how to pray to His Father and be our Father, too. Sadly, though, men paid homage to many Gods, and ravaged the Earth’s bountiful resources to the core!
Our God, Our Teacher, Our Savior and Our Brother, summarized His commandments into two. First: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.” Second: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Matthew 22:38-39).
The key is a favorite object to exemplify love. The key to heaven and the key to a heart exemplify man’s desire for the heavenly joys and sharing of treasures, time, talents as tokens of love for others.
After two decades Pope Francis warned the faithful of a “complacent and covetous heart in feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures… caught up in its own interests and concerns” in Evangelii Gaudium (Joy of the Gospel).
The social milieu during Jesus’ time approximates the world today. There were melting pots of various religions, conclaves for the rich and underprivileged, immoral places and power struggle among leaders.
That men live “amid the crisis of communal commitment” was emphasized by the pope. Adoration for the ancient golden calf (Exodus 32:1-35) has been renewed. It has been refined—“a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and dictatorship of an impersonal economy.”
Jesus was very emphatic in saying, “No servant can be the slave of two masters…. You cannot serve both God and money” (Luke 16:13).
To those who would like to follow Him, He frankly told them to unpack their earthy baggage, sell their belongings and give the proceeds to the poor. Saint Matthew, the wealthiest among the apostles of Christ, was a tax collector of Caesar, and left his job to follow Jesus.
Keep faith
Faith is a total abandonment of will and intellect to God. It is trust—undivided, undaunted, unquestioning, unfaltering even in bad times. But it seems difficult to live our faith despite God’s assurance that when “we have faith, we have everything we need.” Faith is in the form of a cross.
Our age implies the number of Lenten seasons we have lived. It also reminds us how many times the blessed ashes had been traced on our foreheads while the priest says, “you are dust, and to dust you will return.”
The ashes had always been in the form of a cross. To remind everyone that it is the symbol of a true Christian.
Jesus himself emphasized: “Whoever wishes to come after me, must deny himself, take up his cross everyday and follow me” (Luke 9:23).
God never promised a life without crosses. Neither did He promise a custom-made cross, to suit our taste and preferences, more so capacity to endure. He even emphasized that He chastises those He loves and gives them crosses in life (Proverbs 3:12).
To live well is to keep faith burning in our being. Our all-loving, all-knowing, all-merciful God never sends anyone a cross beyond endurance. For the cross is never a sign of criminality or punishment among children of God, but of love and compassion exemplified by the only Son of God and Father—Jesus.
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Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.