Tag: Mary Magdalene

Why Does the Name of Mary Magdalene Endure in Christianity?

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Acts 17

13 When the Jewish leaders in Thessalonica heard that Paul had been preaching God’s message in Berea, they went there and caused trouble by turning the crowds against Paul.

Ezra 4

12 You should know that the Jews who left your country have moved back to Jerusalem and are now rebuilding that terrible city. In fact, they have almost finished rebuilding the walls and repairing the foundations. 13 You should also know that if the walls are completed and the city is rebuilt, the Jews won’t pay any kind of taxes, and there will be less money in your treasury.

Women of the Bible

8. Mary Magdalene

Why does the name of Mary Magdalene endure in Christianity? Why is her name praised throughout the generations? It is because Jesus wanted her name to be known.
    During Jesus’ lifetime, who could understand her behavior? She was ridiculed as a woman of a low background. When she poured perfumed oil worth 300 denarii on his feet, all the disciples mocked her and Judas Iscariot protested her actions. Yet Jesus declared that her name would be remembered wherever the Gospel is preached. He said so because her offering to Jesus at that hour was greater than the devotion of his disciples or anyone else. In fact, her act of devotion to Jesus matched Jesus’ own devotion to God. (4:107, March 16, 1958)

When Jesus was petitioning to Heaven in the Garden of Gethsemane, his three disciples fell asleep; they did not listen to the voice of his prayer. However, Mary Magdalene recognized the divine value of Jesus. She washed his feet with her own hair after pouring perfumed oil on his feet. In this manner, she assured the glory of the Lord Jesus at his resurrection. At the time, his disciples ridiculed her behavior and attempted to stop her. Christians do not know that Jesus was deeply grieved at their attitude, a grievance that remains to this day.
    Jesus Christ lived in sorrow, walking a lonely path that no one recognized. Only Mary Magdalene comforted him, empathizing with Jesus’ divine heart for the past, the present and the future. For this reason, he blessed her with joyful grace and elevated her to stand in the forefront of God’s will. (2:212, May 26, 1957)

Mary Magdalene appeared insignificant compared to the disciples, yet when Jesus passed away, she was the one who visited his tomb. Mary loved Jesus—who was still a bachelor—more than anyone else. She followed him everywhere, sharing the ridicule, the cursing and the ostracism he suffered. Because she longed for him so earnestly, when Jesus was resurrected he appeared to her first. Mary Magdalene is a role model for Christians throughout the world, showing the path that they should walk in the latter days.
    What was the life of Mary Magdalene? She so loved Jesus that she forgot about what to eat or what to wear. She lived only for him, with an unchanging heart. She was not attached to her life; she did not think about saving face. Her faith was exemplary among all Jesus’ disciples. Christians in the Last Days should have the faith of Mary Magdalene. If you can have the same heart as Mary Magdalene, you would have the tears God shed over the 6000 years of the providence welling up in your eyes, and you would recognize how much you are indebted to Heaven. (4:258-59, June 29, 1958)

When Jesus was resurrected after the cross, he turned Mary Magdalene away when she tried to embrace him. He was not in a position to say, “Mary, my Bride, let us go to the Father together.” Jesus had worked hard to restore the Bride that [Heaven] had sought for 2,000 years, looking forward to the day when he could embrace his Bride. It was the Father’s will that Jesus come before Him rejoicing with his Bride, receive God’s marriage Blessing and become the True Parents… but Jesus departed this world without receiving the Blessing by which he could restore the position of humanity’s true ancestor. This is the sorrow of both God and Jesus. (5:187, January 18, 1959)

Among the disciples, Jesus loved Judas Iscariot in particular. He made Judas his object partner, through whom to restore God’s primary Will. Jesus intended to use him in order to erect a woman in the position of Eve, but to do this they should fulfill the roles of the personages involved in the Fall. Specifically, God’s Will required that Jesus set up Judas’s wife as the new Eve. This woman was Mary Magdalene. She had been Judas’ lover, but now as a disciple she was absolutely obedient to Jesus. So, just as Satan had taken Eve from Adam, Jesus [as Adam] planned to take Judas’s woman to be the new Eve. That way the three of them would fulfill God’s will according to the Principle.
    Accordingly, Jesus first acknowledged that Mary Magdalene belonged to Judas Iscariot. Then Jesus commenced the providence by choosing her to be his Eve. While this fundamental providence was going on, in the meantime Satan was fully on the attack, mobilizing the Pharisees and scribes against Jesus. Regardless, had Judas Iscariot trusted, obeyed and attended Jesus in this matter, they would have established the foundation for the fulfillment of God’s Will. But Judas was full of discontent and confronted Jesus. That was the beginning of his rebellion against his Teacher, which culminated when he sold out the One Man unique in all human history for a mere 30 pieces of silver. (Wolli Wonbon 242-43)

She Has Done a Beautiful Thing to Me

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 2189

Filial children must always unite with their parents’ heart and direction. People going the way of filial piety are not those who behave in a way far different from their parents. If the parents go east, then the children should go east. If the parents go west, then they should go west. If the parents have given a certain direction, but suddenly make an about-face, then the filial child must follow them. There should be no dissent from this. If you follow your parents when they leave home, and each time they order you to turn back and go home, you should turn to go back but then do an about-face and follow them anyway, even if this happens ten times.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1514

All the creation would appear beautiful in your eyes at the time of your marriage, just as it was when God created the universe. The whole of creation, including you, exists through love. When you realize this, then through that love the fundamental feelings God nurtured at the time of Creation can be re-created and shared with your partner and all forms of existence on earth, all united together as one. In other words, it is possible for you to experience the deepest feelings of God at the time of Creation. You are also a part of the creation who inherited every ideal conceived by God when He created the universe. If you were to pull true love towards yourself, heaven and earth would also be drawn towards you. Even the furthest things would be drawn to you if they were pulled by true love, and things nearby could be sent far away by the power of true love. (216-192, 1991.3.31)

Women of the Bible

8. Mary Magdelene

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at table with him. Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”
    John 12.1-4

But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and when-ever you will, you can do good to them; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
    Mark 14.6-9

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”…
    Then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her
    John 20.1-18

Old People in America Are Really to be Pitied

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Cheon Seong Gyeong  2452

Once we grow old, we start to become
senile, don’t we? Once we get senile, we
become like babies. Once we become
senile, we even lose the ability to speak.
Isn’t that true? That is why grandparents
and grandchildren should come togeth-
er. Once I have become a grandfather, I
find my grandchildren even more lov-
able than my own children. And the
people I long for the most are not my
children, but my grandchildren. That’s
how it is. From this point of view, old
people in America are really to be pit-
ied. (266-147, 1994.12.22)

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1191

Instead of beating His enemy to
death God must set the condition of
having loved him. In the same way the
person standing in the position of Adam
has to set up a condition of having loved
the enemy Satan. If you endure over
and over again while being persecuted,
and prevail over all the tears, blood and
sweat, until the enemy naturally surren-
ders to you, and return embracing God’s
love, then you can receive the blessing.
That is when Satan will let you go. You
must receive this public approval; “You
can now become a child qualified to go to
the heavenly kingdom.” Who must sign
this approval? Satan must. After Satan
signs this, you will sign it, and then True
Parents must sign it. You can only stand
before God only after getting this signa-
ture from True Parents. That is the heav-
enly kingdom. (141-202, 1986.2.22)

The Father and I

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 12, 1959

John 14: 1-19

Judas Iscariot chastised Mary Magdalene, who was a prostitute, as she knelt and poured three hundred denarii worth of oil on the feet of Jesus and washed them with her hair. When he did so, Jesus defended her. Mary was not acting unreasonably. Because she was concerned for the heart of Jesus, who was to be killed, an aspect of God’s pained and indignant heart was reflected through her. Therefore, Jesus predicted that her name would remain wherever the words of the Gospel spread.

When Mary wanted to hold Jesus, who had resurrected from the grave, Jesus prevented her out of concern that the resurrected self might be stained. In other words, Jesus stopped her because he wanted her to be more joyous in meeting the Father than in meeting him. He wanted her to be more glad for the Father than for him, and more glad for the hope that humanity might again be reborn than happy to see him. It is sad that the Jesus we believe in today came and went with such a regret-filled heart. That is a sad thing.

We have to let this be known to the Christians of the world today. What is needed is not someone who takes pride in his own faith, based on Jesus who was glorified by history. There is a need for people like the woman who searched for Jesus on the mountainside of Calvary, who can take pride in Jesus even if they themselves are trampled on and pushed out by history. There is a greater need for people like Mary Magdalene than for the twelve disciples who walked their own separate ways, denying their knowledge of Jesus.

In believing in Jesus, have you ever made God cry? Have you ever made Jesus cry? Have you ever shivered, holding onto the crying Father who said, “How difficult it must have been for you to walk this path that I have gone through. How difficult it must have been to find Me in My sorrow”? Have you held the hands of Jesus who cried as he called out for you? If not, don’t say anything. Do not be proud of anything.

The people who were ridiculed and cast out will be the princes and princesses of the Kingdom of Heaven. Even if everything is lost, we should long for the heart and will of the Father. When you are able to find meaning in your life, meaning in the church, and meaning in society, while you long for those, God will not send you to hell even if you try to go. God will claim such people.

The topic of today’s talk was “The Father and I,” but we are unworthy to use the word “Father.” We should experience the times when even saying the word “Father” makes us feel unworthy. We should have the attitude that says, “Father, how can a lowly person like me call you Father?” There is no need to say anything else. The right of ownership of the cosmos will be decided as you call out “Father” with your body and mind united and a desperate heart. Heavenly Father is longing for such Unificationists.