Third Homily for the First Day of Pascha (St. Luke of Simferopol)

Explanation of the Words of the Savior to Mary Magdalene: 

“Do Not Touch Me”

 

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Homily Delivered on May 25, 1952)

Holy Scripture, and above all the New Testament, is our greatest treasure, it is the most precious thing on earth for us.

For only from the words of God, embodied in Holy Scripture, which is written by the Holy Spirit, do we learn the most important and most necessary for us - we learn first of all about the meaning and tasks of our life, for those who do not know the word of God, and even more reject it, human life is often presented as devoid of meaning, or even full of evil meaning.

In their ignorance, they do not have a firm support for determining their attitude to the world, as we have this support, for the Lord Jesus Christ and His holy apostles showed us the path of life, indicated everything that we should do, indicated everything that God hates, and what we should avoid.

And if so, if Holy Scripture is the most precious guide to our life, to our moral behavior, then shouldn't we treat everything that we read in the word of God with the greatest reverence and fullest attention?

But even those of you who constantly read the Holy Scriptures often find places in it that are inaccessible to their understanding.

There is something mysterious in Holy Scripture, and above all in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, for the Lord Jesus Christ could not speak completely openly, clearly and simply about the greatest mysteries of God.

He could only speak about these great mysteries in secret, and therefore it is necessary for us to delve into every word of Christ, and especially into those words of the Lord Jesus that seem obscure and not entirely understandable, with all the power of our understanding.

But you yourself will not be able to clarify for yourself, to understand everything that is unclear, that is hidden. God has appointed for you shepherds, and teachers, and archpastors, whose duty is to explain the Holy Scriptures to you, to help you comprehend all that is not easy to comprehend.

To do this, your teachers and pastors must themselves have a deep theological erudition, a complete knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and the works of the Holy Fathers.

So it is my duty to explain to you one passage from the Gospel of the Apostle John the Theologian, which you heard yesterday at Vespers.

You have heard the story of how Mary Magdalene on the first day of the week, i.e. on the day of the resurrection of the Lord, she went to the tomb and did not find the Lord Jesus there, but saw only two angels sitting on a stone.

Being in deep sorrow, in confusion, she turned back and suddenly saw the Lord Jesus standing in front of her, but she did not recognize Him, just as the holy apostles did not recognize Him when He appeared to them, just as the apostles Luke and Cleopas did not recognize Him when they went to Emmaus, and He went up to them and accompanied them.

Without recogning the Lord Jesus, Saint Mary mistook Him for a gardener and asked: “Sir! if you carried Him away, tell me where you put Him, and I will get Him” (John 20:15).

The Lord addressed Mary Magdalene with only one word: “Mary!” But this word was spoken in such a way that it immediately penetrated into her heart, and she suddenly recognized the One Whom she took to be the gardener, the Lord Jesus Himself.

She exclaimed, "Rabbi," and rushed to Him to kiss His feet.

But the Lord suddenly suddenly pushed her aside and said to her: “Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to my brothers and say to them: I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God” (John 20:17) .

So I want to explain to you why the Lord Jesus Christ forbade Mary Magdalene to touch Him, why He sent her to His disciples to announce what He commanded her?

After all, we know from the narration of other evangelists that the Lord appeared to other myrrhbearing women, and to the apostles themselves, and He did not forbid them to touch Him. So, we read from the Evangelist Matthew, how it was no longer Mary Magdalene, but other myrrhbearing women who learned from the angel that the Lord had risen - “When they went to announce to His disciples, behold, Jesus met them and said: 'Rejoice.' And they approached, took hold of His feet, and worshiped Him” (Matt. 28:9).

You see, the Lord did not forbid them to grasp His feet and kiss them, but Mary Magdalene was forbidden.

We read from the Evangelist Luke that when the apostles Luke and Cleopas recognized Jesus Himself in the breaking of bread and believed in His resurrection, they immediately returned to Jerusalem to the apostles and told about it.

And suddenly, when they were speaking, He Himself, “Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and said to them: Peace be with you, ... Look at My hands and at My feet; it is I myself; touch Me and see; for the spirit has no flesh and bones, as you see with me” (Luke 24:36-39).

He himself suggested: touch - feel with your hands, lest you think that this is not I, the living Jesus, but only a ghost.

You also know that the holy apostle Thomas was not present with the other disciples at that time: the Lord Jesus appeared to him together with the other apostles only eight days later and said to Thomas: “Put your finger here, and see my hands; give me your hand and put it in my side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing” (John 20:27).

He offered to put his finger into His wounds, and forbade Mary Magdalene to touch Him.

What does this mean, why did He forbid Mary to touch Him? We find the answer to this in the words of the Lord Jesus Himself, immediately after that was said to Mary: Do not touch Me, because "I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brothers, i.e. to the apostles, and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.”

This is how the Lord Himself explained the prohibition to touch Him.

Therefore, it was impossible to touch, because He had not yet ascended to His Father and His God.

How to understand it? Nowhere in Scripture is it said, no one anywhere taught that the Lord Jesus Christ immediately after His resurrection ascended into heaven to His Father and only after having fellowship of love with His Father did He allow people to touch Him.

And I think that Mary Magdalene came directly after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

He had just risen, He had not yet ascended to the Father and His God.

He says: Go to the apostles, to my brothers and say: "I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God."

And so, from these words of the Lord Jesus Himself, we learn that before His final ascension to heaven, when He left the earth forever, He ascended to the Father directly after His resurrection.

This, so to speak, was His first ascent.

This is not my arbitrary thought, these are the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: "I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God."

How can we understand this ascent? Why was it necessary, and where did our Lord Jesus ascend?

We know that God is omnipresent. Yes, He is omnipresent, and by His omnipresence He, by His omniscience and reason, by His Divine will, guides everywhere the life of the world and mankind.

Where, then, did the Lord Jesus have to ascend, if God is omnipresent by His omniscience, His mind, His will, His love?

From the words of the holy Apostle Paul, addressed to his disciple, Bishop Timothy, we know that "God lives in unapproachable light." By His nature, His spiritual essence, His hypostasis, He is not everywhere, but somewhere in the impregnable light.

We do not know where this unapproachable light is, but Jesus Christ, of course, knew, for He is one with the Father, and if He was temporarily separated from the Father, when He took on human flesh, when He accomplished His feat of saving the human race, which was immeasurable in the power of love, then He was separated from the Father not by hypostasis, but because He, as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, is characterized by His separate personal existence along with the common existence of the Holy Trinity.

We know that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. We also know that the Lord sent the Holy Spirit to His disciples after His Ascension, which means that the Holy Spirit was temporarily separated from the Father, just as the Lord Jesus Christ was absent for the sake of earthly life and the redemption of the human race.

So, into the impregnable light unknown to us, in which God lives eternally, the Lord Jesus Christ entered immediately after His resurrection.

Before appearing to people, didn’t He need to enter into the communion of love with His Eternal Father, didn’t He, together with the Father, need to share the joy of that great feat that He had just accomplished - the feat of saving mankind from the power of the devil.

Just as we, people, as children in particular, yearn for our parents, father and mother, in order to share our joy with them, in order to inform about the most important events of our life, so the Second Person of the Holy Trinity needed the communion of love and joy about the accomplished feat. For the sake of this fellowship of love and joy, the Lord Jesus Christ ascended immediately after His Resurrection to where the light is unapproachable, where is the eternal abode of the Triune God.

Here is my explanation of why the Lord Jesus Christ forbade only Mary Magdalene to touch Him: He had not yet ascended to His Father. It is too early to enter into fellowship with people, too early to allow Him to be touched.

Later you will see My new appearances, you will see how the disciples will touch My Body, and Saint Thomas put his fingers in the nail wounds, puts his hand in my ribs - wait.

So, therefore, I believe that before the final Ascension of the Lord from the earth, He, as He Himself said, ascended to His Father and His God.

And for us, who know this, who know that first of all the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God, aspired to where the light is impregnable, should we not build life so that it would be an unceasing striving for this impregnable light, for the throne of God!

Let's go, let's go where the Lord Jesus Christ is. But remember that only those who have loved God with all their hearts and believed in Christ Jesus will go to Him after death – only those will go into the unapproachable light.

And their eternal life will be in joy and gladness, in communion with God in the unapproachable light.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

 

 

The Translation of the Sacred Relics of Saint Mary Magdalene from Ephesus to Constantinople in 890 A.D.

According to ecclesiastical tradition, towards the end of her life, Saint Mary Magdalene went to Ephesus, where the Apostle John the Theologian lived. There she became his helper and supporter in his trials and tribulations, in his imprisonment and in all his afflictions. In Ephesus, the Saint led many to the faith and awareness of the truth. The people of Ephesus honored and revered her.

After her death, her revered body was buried by the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John, in a cave near Ephesus, as a precious treasure. During the burial, many miracles were performed, as well as in later times, until today, the Saint does not stop performing miracles.

The Wondrous Encounter of the Greek Poet Angelos Sikelianos with Saint Mary Magdalene

Angelos Sikelianos, born on 28 March 1884 and died on 19 June 1951, was a Greek lyric poet and playwright. His themes include Greek history, religious symbolism as well as universal harmony in poems such as The Moonstruck, Prologue to Life, Mother of God, and Delphic Utterance. His plays include Sibylla, Daedalus in Crete, Christ in Rome, The Death of Digenis, The Dithyramb of the Rose and Asklepius. Although occasionally his grandiloquence blunts the poetic effect of his work, some of Sikelianos finer lyrics are among the best in Western literature. In the six years from 1946 until 1951, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Translation and Placement of the Holy Relics of Saint Mary Magdalene

Verses

For the Translation.

Although dead you live, and the city is silent,
Being beforehand entranced by you Mary.

For the Placement.

Mary calls Christ, Rabbi, once again.
What did she say? Christ. Bury me with a covering in the city.

On this day, the 4th of May, we commemorate the Translation of the Sacred Relics of the Holy and Righteous Lazarus the Friend of Christ and the Holy Myrrhbearer Mary Magdalene, which took place during the reign of Leo the Philosopher and lover of Christ in the year 890.

When Mary Magdalene Visited the Island of Zakynthos

According to tradition, two women evangelized the island of Zakynthos in apostolic times, both Myrrhbearers and eye-witnesses of the Resurrection of Christ - Mary Magdalene and Mary of Cleopas. They first preached Christ crucified and risen to the locals while on their way to Rome around the year 34. Their ship dropped anchor at Porto Vromi and Mary Magdalene came ashore to spread Christ’s gospel. The footprint can still be seen on the rock where she first stepped foot. Today at Maries, Panagia Mariesotissa is the church of the village, standing below the village and housing an icon with miraculous properties. In Maries these events are celebrated annually with a procession on July 22nd, which is the feast of Saint Mary Magdalene.

Mary Magdalene, Myrrhbearer and Equal to the Apostles

Little is known of the early life of St. Mary. She was called "Magdalene" because she lived in the town of Magdala on the shore of the sea of Galilee. In the Gospels we read that she was afflicted with an incurable disease: she was possessed by seven devils (Lk. 8:2). This was allowed by God's Providence so that in curing her the Lord Jesus Christ could show forth the power and glory of God.

Why Did The Lord Forbid Mary Magdalene From Touching Him After His Resurrection?

By St. John Chrysostom

(Homily 86 on the Gospel of John)

John 20:17 - "Jesus said to her, 'Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended unto My Father.'"

Some assert, that she asked for spiritual grace, because she had heard Him when with the disciples say, "If I go to the Father, I will ask Him, and He shall give you another Comforter." But how could she who was not present with the disciples have heard this? Besides, such an imagination is far from the meaning here. And how should she ask, when He had not yet gone to the Father? What then is the sense? I think that she wished still to converse with Him as before, and that in her joy she perceived nothing great in Him, although He had become far more excellent in the Flesh. To lead her therefore from this idea, and that she might speak to Him with much awe, (for neither with the disciples does He henceforth appear so familiar as before,) He raises her thoughts, that she should give more reverent heed to Him.

Synaxarion of Saint Mary Magdalene

Synaxarion

On the twenty-second of this month [July], we commemorate the Holy Myrrhbearer and Equal of the Apostles, Mary Magdalene.

Verses

With touches immaterial she touches you my Christ,

To whom you said, ‘Touch me not, O Mary.’

On the twenty-second Mary Magdalene slept.

She was from Magdala, which is in the regions of Syria. When she approached Christ, she followed Him, and because she was troubled by seven demons, she was delivered from them by the grace of Christ. Therefore she followed Christ and served Him until His Passion and Crucifixion, and became a Myrrhbearer and preacher of the gospel, and was first among the Myrrhbearers who saw the Risen Christ, along with the other Mary, namely our Lady the Theotokos.*

Saint Mary Magdalene Resource Page

St. Mary Magdalene (Feast Day - July 22)

 

Synaxarion of Saint Mary Magdalene

 

Translation and Placement of the Holy Relics of Saint Mary Magdalene

 

The Translation of the Sacred Relics of Saint Mary Magdalene from Ephesus to Constantinople in 890 A.D.

 

Synaxarion for the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers

  

Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women Gospel Explanation (St. Theophylact of Ochrid)

  

Homily For the Sunday of The Myrrhbearing Women (St. Gregory Palamas)

 

July: Day 22: Teaching 1: Saint Mary Magdalene, Equal to the Apostles 

 

Homily on the Holy and Equal to the Apostles Myrrhbearer Mary Magdalene (St. John of Kronstadt) 

  

Who Really Was Mary Magdalene?

 

Mary Magdalene, Myrrhbearer and Equal to the Apostles

 

The Seven Demons of Mary Magdalene

 

The Creepiest Scene in Jesus Film History

 

The Three Visits of Mary Magdalene to the Tomb of Christ

 

Paschal Pastoral Encyclical 2000 (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

  

Why Did The Lord Forbid Mary Magdalene From Touching Him After His Resurrection?

  

Explanation of the Words of the Savior to Mary Magdalene: “Do Not Touch Me” (St. Luke of Simferopol) 

 

The Red Eggs of Pascha

  

The Incorrupt Left Hand of St. Mary Magdalene

 

The Wondrous Encounter of the Greek Poet Angelos Sikelianos with Saint Mary Magdalene

 

Saint Hieronymos of Simonopetra and the Miraculous Left Hand of Saint Mary Magdalene

  

When Mary Magdalene Visited the Island of Zakynthos

 

Saint Mary Magdalene Returns to Zakynthos Island

 

The Miraculous Events at the Catacomb of St. Mary Magdalene in Lesvos

 

The Visionary Nun Paisia and the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene in Plomari, Lesvos

  

Movie: "He Who Must Die" (1957)

The Visionary Nun Paisia and the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene in Plomari, Lesvos

Icon of St. Mary Magdalene in Plomari

The following comes from a letter received by Mrs. Loukia Lydi dated May 10, 1976:

Many are the miracles that have been done and continue to be done by Saint Mary Magdalene. We will mention some of these, to the glory of the Saint and for our help.

Some devout Christians visited the elder from Mytilene, Mr. Tragakis, in Plomari to learn about wondrous matters related to Saint Mary Magdalene. He was lying down looking exhausted due to his old age. When they explained the reason for their visit, his mood changed. He got up immediately. That moment he was as if another man. He told us he was 106 years old and that he suffered from sicknesses and had memory lapses. Because he was not able to write, he begged us to write down whatever he was about to tell us. And he began to recount miracles his eyes had seen in the name of the Myrrhbearing Saint, Mary Magdalene. We report what he said about Saint Mary: