SEVEN - AND THE TWO BECOME ONE (Continued)
by Sr.Maria (Deacon), July 2006
Have you not asked yourself why it is Mary Magdalene who meets the
risen Savior first? Apart from Mark, this is to be read in John as well (the famous
'noli me tangere' scene). Yet, besides Mark 16:9 there is not any verse in the New
Testament giving any reason. Mary is accompanying Jesus and his disciples - like other
women. She is present at his crucifixion - like other women. There is no special
relationship mentioned; indeed there is nothing at all mentioned making her anyone
special - except that she had seven evil spirits cast out of her and that she is the
first to meet him (if we do not take into account Luke and Matthew).
Why her? Why, for
example, is it not Simon Peter, to whom Jesus said: "you are Peter, and on this rock
will my church be based" (Matthew 16:18)? In fact, the catholic church would
presumably prefer to have it this way. But it is not. What is more, as the newly
found sources, the "gnostic" texts of the Nag Hammadi Library, show, with Mary it is
Peter's 'opponent' seeing Christ first.
In those texts, Peter is usually described as
opposing Mary - a fact that Elaine Pagels interpreted as representing the opposition
of "orthodox" and "gnostic" groups. But to argue consequently that Mary Magdalene
hints at Gnosticism in those meeting-after-resurrection-scenes in the Gospel of Mark
and John seems possible yet not tenable - at least not as the only answer/reason.
The
Gospel of Thomas is probably (one of) the text(s) closest to the Q Gospel and clearly
gnostic - so Thomas would have been a far more reasonable choice to hint at Gnosticism.
With contemporary literature one could come to the conclusion that the love of Jesus
towards Mary (e.g. in the Gospel of Mary it is said: "the Savior loved you more than
the rest of women") hints at a sexual relationship; and meeting her first would in
return hint at their love. Though this might bear the most important features needed
for a bestseller, I think it is a rather profane reading. Nevertheless, I would agree
that the "sexual" component - Mary being female - is the key. And now the argument
from above (a hint at gnosticism) becomes more likely (as an addition) because it
explains why Mary is taken and not some other woman.
It could be concluded that Mary Magdalene is to meet the Savior first because
she is adding a sexual component as well as hinting at a (more or less hidden)
gnostic meaning of this situation. Just to state it explicitly: this is an
interpretative reading - I am not saying that this was exactly at the authors'
minds when writing the Gospel of Mark or John, respectively.
Returning to Mark 16:9, it should be clear by now how the first part of the phrase
could be interpreted: Male meeting female - Two becoming one. This could already be
regarded as an important deeper meaning, if you transfer it to an inner level
(building a unity out of both principles inside your Self - finding your bridegroom or
your bride).
But only by adding the second part of the verse (the seven demons cast out of her),
its deepest sense comes to the surface:
The risen Christ meeting the liberated soul.
The bridegroom meeting the bride. Two becoming "one single life."
Final words
In the beginning I told you about a duality becoming a unity and thereby completing a
trinity. The duality was just explained above - male and female inside one self, the
liberated soul and the Christ within. Since they display the protagonists of the
bridal chamber, the unity they form is the one to be formed there. To stay in the
language of the "gnostic scriptures": the primordial being, the true nature, the
reconnection to the pleroma. And, to state it again, the unity as it is sought for
in t h i s life, inside oneself - the reaching and fullfilling of gnosis. And that
brings us to the completion of a trinity: liberating your soul from matter and uniting
it with the christ within, thereby reaching the pneumatic state - that means
completing the gnostic trinity of flesh/matter, soul and spirit.
"Now if we are manifest in this world wearing him, we are that one's beams, and we are embraced by him unitl our setting, that is to say, our death in this life. We are drawn to heaven by him, like beams by the sun, not being restrained by anything.
This is the spiritual resurrection which swallows up the psychic in the same way as the fleshly."
[Treatise on the Resurrection, 45:29-46:2]
Sometimes one single phrase can contain more truth than a whole bunch of them.
The interesting part is that if you find it, you can try to put it in new words,
describe it, make it more visible, even explain it. But no matter how many and how simple
(or contrastingly elaborate) words you use, you will never be able to confer along with
it this feeling you got when reading this one single phrase. But this is how it has to
be, because what is truth to someone, might seem nonsense to another one. And most often
it even depends on one's point in life (experience). It is like the blind men and the
elephant (Platon). Most likely there is only one truth out there, but you can take hold
of many different parts of it, all appearing as something else. In difference to the
blind men, though, you will be able to catch a glimpse of the whole elephant by seeing
just one part - right then, when one single phrase communicates its inner truth to your
inmost part, your divinity. That is like the seed falling on good earth (Mark 4:8).
"I have addressed those who are awake."
[The Sophia of Jesus
Christ, 97:23]
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