CHAPTER 1

Week 1

Mary

DAY 1 The Truth

Returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other womenwith them who told this to the apostles. (Luke 24:9–10)

In order to experience the miracle of resurrection, you must first face the factthat you are going to die. Mary Magdalene saw the risen Christ at the tomb. Shehad to go there, to that dark place where death lay visible for her to examine.It was in the face of death that she found life.

Most Americans run away from death. We euphemistically say that someone "passedaway." We talk about our 401Ks as if we are preparing to live in retirementforever, but we do not prepare for death.

Most of us seem to believe that if we avoid the subject of death, maybe deathwon't happen to us. Maybe if we use Oil of Olay and work out enough, and watchour cholesterol, then death won't come for us.

When people in their eighties get cancer, many of them are shocked. They ask,"Why did God do this to me?" as if God has tricked them out of their lives. Onewoman, at eighty-nine, asked me as she lay on her deathbed why God was punishingher.

"Why is God doing this to me?" she said.

I tried to talk to her about the inevitability of death, that all bodies growold and die, but she did not seem to hear me. "My dear friend," I said, "didn'tyou know that the death rate is 100 percent? Our bodies were simply not designedby God to last forever. They run out of juice. Your body is old and worn-out. Itis time to talk about dying."

This is the best part of my job as a priest. I get to tell the truth. I get tocome into people's homes and ask if they have thought about dying, if they loveGod, if they say their prayers, if they are ready. Often my bluntness shocksthem. Many will cry. Many will tell me that they really want to go, but theirloved ones will not let them. One woman begged me not to let her husband put heron life-support when the time came for her to die.

Our hospitals are designed to fight death with everything we have. Doctors aremade to feel like failures if they do not "save" a life. But what often ends uphappening is that they end up prolonging dying, not saving life. I cannot countthe times when I have begged families and doctors to allow patients to die.People get so confused. They actually think that it is a sin to let a loved onewho is terminally ill and on life-support die. But they are only prolonging painand suffering. Part of life is letting go and there is such a large differencebetween love and attachment.

You cannot contemplate resurrection without looking at the tomb, withoutcontemplating death. There is no other way to eternal life but through deathitself, through the tomb. We don't just continue life as we know it. Lifedoesn't just go on uninterrupted. We must die first and only then can we hope tolive in Christ.

If you admit that you are going to die, then your life can become a love letterto God. You can think of your life as a gift, the gift of a limited period oftime in which you can choose how to serve God. And you can prepare for yourdeath so that it is beautiful and edifies all those who love you.

How can we understand the miracle of the resurrection if we do not look into thetomb and see the darkness? Death is coming for you. It will come. And the onlything that you will be able to cling to is your belief in a God who loved youenough to face death for you.

DAY 2 Being Yourself with God

Early on the first day of the week, when it was still dark, Mary Magdalene cameto the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. (John 20:1)

When I was a child, Molly Smith was my best friend. A simple chain-link fencewith a small gate connected our backyards. We went through that gate a lot. Shewould come over to my house. I would drift over to hers. We skateboarded in theneighborhood and vowed to never wear dresses. I cannot imagine my childhoodwithout Molly.

Molly was no good at sports. She never could get her feet to move fast enough.She seemed to be perpetually falling down. I would laugh at her, pressure her,tell her to move faster. I thought that she was lazy.

Molly and I collected stickers. We loved our sticker albums with a passion. Ihad more stickers than Molly and I loved rubbing it in.

After we graduated from high school, Molly and I went to separate colleges. Inthe spring of my sophomore year, I got a call from my mom. Molly's roommate hadfound her in a coma. They'd rushed her to the hospital, where the doctorsdiscovered that she had too much fluid on her brain. It had been building up forher entire life. That was why she was clumsy and bad at sports. If her roommatehad not found her, she might have died in her dorm room.

I felt terrible for all those years of laughing at her and yelling at her to runfaster. I never knew why she couldn't respond with more energy.

I found my sticker album and made Molly a large card. On it, I tried to fitevery single sticker I owned.

Mary Magdalene had something wrong with her brain. In biblical times, whensomeone was sick in a way that no one could see or understand, they diagnosedthe problem as demons. Epilepsy, schizophrenia, mental illness of any kind, whenpeople hurt themselves or others for no visible reason, their afflictions wereattributed to demons. If there was no other visible cause for an abnormality,pain, or suffering, it was called a demon. And Mary had seven demons. Sevendifferent kinds of pain and suffering. Seven things that no one could explain.

So Mary suffered. She was not herself. She lived in a world of misunderstandingand pain.

Then Jesus came and when he came, everything changed.

Jesus did not punish Mary for her demons or lecture her. He healed her. And forthe first time in her life, she was truly herself.

Once Mary discovered herself in Jesus, she would not leave his side. She couldnot bear to be away from him. He was everything to her. Mary Magdalene alone waspresent at the foot of the cross in all four of the Gospel accounts. She neverleft Jesus, even when he was bleeding and dying. Not even the horror of thecross could drive her away.

On the third day, when the sun began to rise, she raced to the tomb. She musthave felt like half of her heart was removed when he died. She was drawn to hisbody almost unconsciously, needing to be there with him, even in death.

Mary's first response to the disappearance of his body was shock and grief. Shewept. Maybe she could not see through her tears. Maybe she just could notconceive of him being alive, but when Jesus appeared, she did not recognize him.

Jesus called her back to herself. It is so fascinating to me that he didn'tidentify himself. He didn't say, "Hey, it's me! Jesus!" Instead, he said...