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John's News > Mary Magdalene The Apostle
Mary Magdalene The Apostle
(Go to my brothers and tell them…John 20:17)
Not promising,
not a good beginning,
to send Mary with the news
before the day is bright.
Had the hand he laid on her
killed the whiff
of seven demons
he had exorcised?
Anyway, by law
not to be trusted.
as witness,
very dubious.
Why had he appeared,
first of all, to her?
Why make trouble now?
not street smart!
She walks the garden path
while it is dark,
the fortress of Antonia still
threatening the small of the night,
see angels in white
guarding an empty space, and turns to find the gardener,
(fretting over trampled cabbages?)
Who is dumb before her question,
but says her name,
and, in the speaking,
suddenly it is dawn.
She reaches out a hand
to touch the yesterday,
and grasps the feet of all
the untouchable tomorrows.
She who loiters finds,
sent to tell the others
before the history is cooked,
and served on silver platters.
But the huddled guardians
of despair will not eat.
the report of glory from a woman?
not street smart!
Kilian McDonnell, OSB Copyright ©2003 The Order of Saint Benedict
Swift Lord You Are Not was published by St. John's University
Press in September, 2003 and is available from The Liturgical Press or
your local bookstores.
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