Posted on 04/07/2021 6:01:32 AM PDT by Cronos
As the Easter Octave unfolds, we have in the Gospel this enigmatic statement of Our Lord Jesus to Mary Magdalene:
Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God” (John 20:17).
There is much to ponder and distinguish here.
First, we should set aside certain previous translations that rendered “Do not cling to me” as “Do not touch me.”
The latter sounds almost rude. The Greek expression Μή μου ἅπτου (Me mou haptou) is best rendered, “Do not go on clinging to me” because haptou is a verb in the middle voice.
The middle voice is one that English lacks. It is midway between the active and passive voices and indicates that the subject of the verb (in this case, Mary) both acts and is acted upon. Mary lays hold of the Lord but needs to do so because something is different. Something deeper is being shown to her and she is missing that. Mary actively sees Jesus but passively needs to receive something new about Him. This is the middle voice, containing elements of both the active and the passive.
Further, as Strong’s Greek dictionary sets forth, ἅπτω (haptou) means “to fasten to,” “to adhere to,” or “to cling to.” What the Lord asks of Mary is that she not merely cling to what is familiar but step back and see what is new. Jesus is no longer a mere rabbi or teacher. He is not merely the Jesus she knew; He is Lord and He is risen.
Second, we must ponder what Jesus means when He says that He is ascending.
St. Thomas Aquinas summarizes St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom on the meaning of the Lord’s ascending:
[Augustine says] “… Jesus would have us to believe in Him, i.e., to touch Him spiritually, as being Himself one with the Father. For to that man’s innermost perceptions He is, in some sort, ascended unto the Father, who has become so far proficient in Him, as to recognize in Him the equal with the Father … whereas she as yet believed in Him but carnally, since she wept for Him as for a man.” Or as Chrysostom says (Hom. lxxxvi in Joan.): “This woman wanted to converse with Christ just as before the Passion, and out of joy was thinking of nothing great, although Christ’s flesh had become much nobler by rising again.” And therefore He said: “I have not yet ascended to My Father”; as if to say: “Do not suppose I am leading an earthly life; for if you see Me upon earth, it is because I have not yet ascended to My Father, but I am going to ascend shortly.” Hence He goes on to say: “I ascend to My Father, and to your Father” (Summa Theologiae III, Q. 55, Art. 6, Reply to Obj. 3).
In other words, Jesus’ ascent must take place in Mary (and in every other follower). He is far more than a man resuming mortal nature. He is more; He is Lord. We must come to see Him as Lord and God. He must ascend in our sight. We must see Him at a higher level and in a higher way. He is no mere sage or rabbi; He is Lord and God! He must ascend in this way, in our understanding.
In Jesus’ public ministry, Mary had rightly reverenced Jesus as teacher and rabbi, but Jesus the Lord is doing more now than merely leading an earthly life and fitting into earthly categories.
In effect, Jesus is saying to Mary, “Don’t go on clinging to what in Me is familiar to you. Step back, take a good look, and then go tell my brothers what you see.”
When Mary Magdalene has done this, she runs to the apostles and says, “I have seen the LORD” (Jn 20:18). I show the word “LORD” in uppercase in this quote because up until this point, Mary used the word “Lord” as a title of human respect. She said, “They have taken my Lord and I don’t know where they have put Him.” Of course, one doesn’t take Him and put Him anywhere! He is LORD, and He does as He pleases. No longer clinging to Him in merely a familiar way, Mary now says, “I have seen the LORD,” meaning it in a plenary and divine sense.
For Mary, the Lord is ascending. She is seeing Him in a higher way. The Lord has ascended for Mary Magdalene. Has He ascended for you?
Finally, what of the Lord’s expression that He is ascending to “My Father and your Father, to My God and your God”?
In English, we can use the word “and” in either an equivalent or a comparative sense. I could say to someone, “You are my brother and my friend.” This uses the “and of equivalence” because it indicates that you are both a brother and a friend to me in the same or in an equivalent way.
Other uses of the word “and” indicate a more comparative sense. When we say that Jesus is Son of God and Son of Mary, we mean that He is the Son of His Father in a different way than He is Son of Mary. He is the Son of both but in very different ways. In the liturgy, when the priest says, “Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the almighty Father,” he indicates that while his sacrifice and the sacrifice of the people are both sacrifices, they are sacrifices in different ways. The priest acts in persona Christi capitis (in the person of Christ the head), while the faithful act as members of the body. Both are rightly called sacrifices, but they are so in different ways.
Thus, when Jesus says that He is ascending to “My Father and your Father,” He does not use the “and of equivalence” but the “and of comparison.” As a man, Jesus can speak of God as His Father, but His human nature is hypostatically united to His divine nature as God, the Second Person of the Trinity. So, although God is our Father and Christ’s Father, He is Christ’s Father in a far richer and more profound way.
Jesus says, “My God and your God” not by way of equivalence, but by way of comparison.
In all these ways, the Lord Jesus must ascend in our understanding. He will do that provided we do not go on clinging to Him in a merely human and familiar way.
Let the Lord ascend in your life.
Please FReepmail me to get on/off the Msgr Charles Pope Ping List.
Just one of the many examples of how we've been taught the wrong thing in church over the last 500 years or so. Thank God...literally... literally literally, not figuratively literally, that there is a new awakening taking place right now that is helping us to understand how much God loves us. EVERYTHING Jesus said and did was for our benefit.
“Do not cling to me” as “Do not touch me.”
So this guy knows more than the bible scholars over the centuries????
I have observed this type of rewriting the bible by pastors who will say: “The original Greek said.....”
Well, if the original Greek said..., then why haven’t the various bibles been written that way.
Jesus was saying to Mary that she was to clingy and he wanted to see other women.....
Thank-you!
The Holy Trinity concept does not make sense to me. I guess I am low IQ loser....
It’s because he hadn’t sprinkled his own blood on the mercy seat in heaven yet and couldn’t be contaminated, later on in the story he told Thomas to touch his hands and side!
Not understanding the Trinity doesn't make you low IQ.
The Trinity was trying to understand how there could be One God and yet Jesus being God at the same time as the Father being God and God's spirit being God. Three distinct personas yet one God.
And at the same time how could Jesus be God (which He said He was; He accepted people worshiping Him; and He did things only God can do (forgiving sins)) and yet also be Man.
I found ironic that after reading the exegesis, “do not cling to me” seems better than “do not touch me.” As in, “do not cling to my earthly form alone, but realize (perhaps for the first time) what I really am.”
As for the Shakespearean painting: Not exactly what I would imagine as “...She, supposing him to be the gardener...” (John 20:15), would look like.
And to be mistaken as a gardener, Jesus had by that point found clothes. For his outer garments were laid claim to by the soldiers at Calvary. The replacements apparently weren’t blood stained, so they couldn’t have been put on his body by those that buried him. Yes I realize he could make clothes appear out of nowhere.
Me either. He wouldn't be ascending to the same person. Nor would the scriptural account of his baptism where the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove and his father's voice from heaven announcing approval make sense if they were all the same person. But you an I are heretics and not in fashion these days. Or so I am told.
. . . and I’ll add that my reading of that verse is that he had not yet ascended to his father God to complete the resurrection process so he didn’t want to freak Mary out by touching a spirit.
I think the early church went through many ( and IMO unnecessary ) contrived convolutions to make Christianity a purely monotheistic religion.
**The Holy Trinity concept does not make sense to me. I guess I am low IQ loser....**
Listen to any number of trinitarian vs modalist debates, and notice that both avoid certain verses; and there are verses both use to arrive at a different outcome. And there are many verses and passages that both completely agree on.
It is best to push ideas out of our heads and just believe the Word as it is written.
**I think the early church went through many ( and IMO unnecessary ) contrived convolutions to make Christianity a purely monotheistic religion.**
The devil didn’t sit around for a 100+ years before launching confusion projects in churches. Paul was warning of false doctrines present in his time.
Polytheism is/was synonymous with paganism. So the early church was in a quandary.
Well, if the original Greek said..., then why haven’t the various bibles been written that way.
= = =
The original WAS written in Greek (NT anyway).
The translators had motives.
No offence (that implies that I already know that I am going to offend).
WHO CARES! This type of study is for intellectuals trying to unearth (pun intended) some secret, hard to understand (enigmatic) truth that everyone else is missing.
Is His word/teaching only to be understood by intellectuals?
That you need to be intelligent enough and educated enough to understand His word? That low IQ and poorly educated people can’t?
Worse yet, that you NEED some intelligent and educated person to explain it to you?
NO!, NO! and NO!
Granted some explanation and study can be “helpful” when it comes to IMPORTANT issues like salvation, but THIS?
“What Does Jesus Mean When He Tells Mary Magdalene Not to Cling to Him Because He Has Not Yet Ascended?”
Like I said WHO CARES! Wasting one second trying to know the unknowable is a FOOL’S errand.
Instead of wasting your time on this, go teach an illiterate to read and give them a bible.
In closing, I just want to say... IF anyone was offended by this post, I apologize. (Liberal apology) otherwise, I don’t. /s
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