Mary Magdalene-Wife and Lover?

The life of Mary Magdalene is a mystery to me. Even though I've attended CCD my entire childhood, I've never learned who she was. I've heard her name before, but it never stood of any interest to me. After Professor Matt's musical performance last class (Wohoo! Encore?) about Magdalene, I was intrigued to learn more about her. The lyrics and notes of Richard Shindell's "The Ballad of Mary Magdalene" were so beautiful, and I decided that it was time to do my research.


My research left me with mixed emotions, for I never believed that Jesus might have had a love.


According to the website, The Nazarene Way of Essenic Studies, Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' devoted women followers:

"She attended him to Calvary, stood weeping at the foot of the cross, and was the first to see the Christ risen [Jesus' Resurrection]. Extra-biblical and Gnostic traditions about Mary Magdalene holds that she was the wife of Jesus and pregnant with his child at the time of his death, a fact which was omitted by later revisionist editors of the Gospels. Interpreted allegorically, Luke-Acts reveals their marriage, a daughter, and two sons." 

Could this be true? 

Richard Shindell believes so:

"A love like this will come but once 

This I do believe 
And I’ll not see his like again 
As I live and breathe 
And I’m sorry if I might offend 
But I will never see 
How the tenderness I shared with him 
Became a heresy"

To add to this, Mary's sorrow that she expressed as Jesus lay dead on the cross could be the response of a "grieving wife and widow." Also, Jesus might have appeared to Mary first after his Resurrection because Mary "was his beloved and in most need of consolation."

I think that it would actually make sense for Jesus to have a relationship with Mary; after all, he was human! On the other hand, I am unsure because I never viewed Jesus as the type of man who would have a lover. Also, if it is true that Jesus and Mary were married, why are their children not mentioned in the Bible? Or are they? I feel that I am discovering more secrets than answers in regard to the Bible. 

http://www.womeninthebible.net/images/MM_14_Cosimo.jpg

http://www.thenazareneway.com/index.htm

I'm Blue (Daba De Daba Di)

Backtracking to the Gita, I was initially confused about the "forms" of  Sri Krishna. What was his true form? Was he a human, a vision, etc? While reading about him in the Gita, I wasn't sure how to picture him. When he talked to Arjuna, what did he look like? 


In class, I learned that Sri Krishna is everything and nothing at the same time; he is an avatar, a shapeshifter and hologram; Arjuna's good friend in human form. He is not real because the world isn't real! And best of all, he is Blue! Take that, Eiffel 65!  


Since the class has finished the Gita and we have moved on to learning about Jesus in Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, I wondered if there could possibly be a connection between Sri Krishna and Jesus. Do you think that if both Sri Krishna and Jesus actually existed, would they have ever met? What a clash of religions!


While researching my thoughts, I found this very interesting article: 


Is Jesus Christ derived from Lord Krishna?


http://www.hinduisminfo.com/2011/02/christ-krishna-christianity-hinduism.html


Whoah! What a mind boggle! Do you think this could be true? This article genuinely interests me and is opening my mind up to something that I had never thought about before. Before taking this class, I didn't even know what Hinduism was! And now it could possibly be related to the religion that I have grown up on for the past nineteen years? Cool!

Who is Jesus to Me?

"Who and what was Jesus and what (if anything) does this mean for our own lives? Thus, perhaps ironically, we must go outside particular theological interpretations, and behind traditional narratives, to find what we can reasonably know about Jesus' life, work, and death before we are in a position to decide how, or whether, to respond."

In response to Professor Matt's post: Christianity as a Response to Jesus, I started thinking, Who is Jesus to me? Honestly, I do not know. Growing up as a Catholic all my life, I am used to attending Church services. I have realized that I have become so accustomed to the routine of church, with the readings from the Bible and the recitation of prayers, that I do not actually pay attention to the words and messages that are being said. Like a lot of teenagers, I feel like I am zoning out and I am not truly understanding the purpose what attending church is about.

Like Professor Matt pointed out, each person must comes to terms with who they think Jesus was. It is up to each and every person to decide.  Jesus, as the priests have preached, is my savior. He died a horrendous death out of love for his people, and he will one day come again "in glory to judge the living and the dead." 

Reflecting on this, Jesus, in my opinion, is my safety net.  I feel that when times are tough, I turn to Him to ask for guidance. Even though I do not receive an answer, I feel comfort in my attempt to seek answers to my problems and unanswered questions. Maybe I do receive an answer, who knows? It is said that he works in mysterious ways....

Take a chance and see

If anyone is interested in listening to my favorite Catholic song, In Christ Alone, here is the youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8lhlOkLhJc


Even if you are not Catholic and do not agree with the lyrics, I think that you will enjoy the music itself. Take a chance and see!

For those of you who do decide to listen to it, what do you think of the song? Do you agree with the lyrics even if you are not religious or Catholic? Does this inspire you to stretch outside your comfort zone and listen to more religious music?

Exhausting the waters

Immerse yourself in the following quote:   

"Our accounts of God are likely stories, but all the same legendary. Not one of them is full and final. We are like little children on the seashore trying to fill our shells with water from the sea. While we cannot exhaust the waters of the deep by means of our shells, every drop that we attempt to gather into our tiny shells is a part of the authentic waters" (page 27).

I think this quote, from Chapter II of The Hindu View of Life by S. Radhakrishnan, is tastefully simply and beautiful. From this quote, I think that Radhakrishnan is saying that every person's vision and idea of God varies due to their beliefs. Even though there may be no "proof" as to if God is real or not, people rely on their beliefs. Like the imagery of children on the seashore, people gather what belief they do have into their seashells, which makes their religion all the more special and meaningful. 

By comparing religion to the authenticity of water in seashells, Radhakrishnan is presenting the point that religions have their own interpretations of what life should be like. However, they are not "full and final." We do not know for sure if there is one or many Gods, but people make a choice to follow a religion and assume that this is the way. 


 Even though the accounts of God may be written down, that does not mean that they should be taken literally. For example, in class the other day we talked about how The Bhagavad Gita is a story; treat it seriously, but not literally. That may be the same case with other religions. In the Bible, the Catholic religion states that all the accounts provided were real, but maybe it is just in the figurative sense, not in the literary sense. Maybe people are "exhausting the waters" by being too literal in their religions.  I had never thought about it this way before..... 

In Christ Alone

The other day I came across one of my favorite Catholic songs, In Christ Alone. I am a Catholic, and whenever I listen to this song, I feel a strong sense of power and emotion pouring through the lyrics. Here are my favorite verses:

And as He stands in victory

Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me

For I am His and He is mine

Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death

This is the power of Christ in me

From a life’s first cry to final breath

Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell, no scheme of man

Could ever pluck me from His hand

Til He returns or calls me home

Here in the power of Christ I stand

The line, 'No guilt in life, no fear in death' reminds me of my last blog. In my last blog, I quoted Sri Krishna in chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita: “Death is inevitable for the living; birth is inevitable for the dead. Since these are unavoidable, you should not sorrow” (91).

I believe this song correlates to Sri Krishna's words. In Christ Alone gently reminds me that with the power of Christ, I should have no guilt in my life or be fearful of death. Of course, other religions will have their own opinions about the matter, but I feel strongly that "the power of Christ" is in me.

The point I am trying to prove is that even though I have brought together two different religious views, Hinduism and Catholicism, the two religions still carry the same message about being fearless and to live life to the fullest.