During the Jubilee of Mercy, the Congregation for Divine Worship, at the indication of Pope Francis, made a "feast" the memory of St. Mary Magdalene, whom the Pope had defined as a disciple "at the service of the nascent Church".
This brilliant definition of the Bishop of Rome is due to what the Gospel tells us. It is she who first sees Christ, it is she who, passing from the sadness of tears to joy, is called by name by Jesus and announces him to the apostles.
The grace of tears
On April 2, which was the Tuesday after Easter 2013, Pope Francis, speaking precisely on the subject of Mary MagdaleneHe had said: "Sometimes, in our lives, the glasses to see Jesus are tears". "Before the Magdalene who weeps, we too can ask the Lord for the grace of tears. It is a beautiful grace...". "To weep for everything: for the good, for our sins, for graces, also for joy. Weeping prepares us to see Jesus".
"And that the Lord gives us all the grace to be able to say with our lives: I have seen the Lord, not because he has appeared to me, but because I have seen him in my heart".
The eyes that announce it
For a priest with intense pastoral activity it is not easy to empathize with the pain of those who come to the parish. Funerals, weddings, baptisms, news of pain, unemployment, tensions, follow one after the other. And they reach the priest's heart in a tumultuous way, one after the other, forcing an emotional alternation that sometimes pushes the priest to protect himself behind an apparent indifference.
The eyes of Mary MagdaleneThe tears of a priest, bathed in tears because they find an empty tomb, can become those of a priest who, after knowing Christ, never cease to look at him and are the first to announce him to the unbelieving apostles.
Priest and writer
