June 16, 2013.
Dear Friends,
We will gather together for our shared Badaliya and Islands of Peace Institute
Prayer on Sunday, June 16, 2013 from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm at St. Pauls Church
in Cambridge, in the small chapel located in the Parish Center. Please join
us in person or in spirit as we encourage Interfaith relations and pray together
for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East and especially in the Holy Land.
As we meet together for the final gathering before our summer break, the Gospel
readings for today provide a rich opportunity to reflect together on the nature
of our shared belief in the forgiveness of our human sinfulness, in the Resurrection
and in the final Judgement.
In the Gospel according to Luke Jesus is invited to dinner at the house of a
Pharisee. The Gospel describes how a woman who was known to be a great sinner
in the town came in with an alabaster jar of anointment and as her tears fell
on the feet of Jesus she proceeded to wipe them away with her hair, anointing
his feet with the oil and kissing them. When the Pharisee questions Jesus about
her he tells a parable about forgiveness ending by stating that one who is pardoned
for the greater sin or debt has more love than one who is not. He states that
her many sins must have been forgiven her or she would not have shown such great
love towards him. He then turns to her and says, "Your faith has saved you,
go in peace.....After this he made his way through towns and villages preaching,
and proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God. With him went the twelve,
as well as certain women who had been cured of evil spirits and ailments: Mary,
surnamed the Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife
of Herod's steward Chuza, Susanna and several others who provided for them out
of their own resources." (Luke 7:36-8:3) Some traditions identify the woman
who washed his feet with her tears as Mary Magdalene.
In his life long search for ways to bring Muslims and Christians and ultimately
all Abrahamic faith traditions together, Louis Massignon was inspired to research
sources for the legends and devotions that survived the centuries and became
part of different cultures throughout the world. He was particularly drawn to
a story about seven Christian saints that is lost to the Western churches but
still honored in the Russian Orthodox Church. It is also found in Surah 18 in
the Qur'an and called ahl al-Kahf, the people of the cave. The story
takes place in the city of Ephesus, known as Selçuk in modern day Turkey,
during the reign of the Roman Emperor Decius in the year 257. (see my Dialogues
with Saints and Mystics, Ch.8)
The story happens during the Roman persecution of the Christians and tells of
seven young men who hide in a cave. They fall asleep and on awakening send one
of them into the town to buy bread. There it is discovered that the coins he
offers for payment are three hundred years old. This is a story of Resurrection,
a belief that is shared by both Christians and Muslims. Massignon very closely
studied the sources for this legend both in Turkey and elsewhere. Ephesus is
the place where the Virgin Mary was said to have lived her last years, taken
there by the Apostle John after she is given into his care by Jesus from the
Cross. John was now her "son" and she his "mother." It was
here in Ephesus that the Church declared the Virgin Mary as theotokos,
Mother of God, and where the original sepulchre of Mary Magdalene, the first
to witness the Resurrection of Christ, lies adjacent to the burial place of
the seven young men to this day. Massignon ties together "the triple mystery
of Ephesus," the marian mystery that declared the Virgin Mary the
Mother of God, and the mystery of Saint John, whose ‘role of substitute'
was lived out here, and finally Mary Magdalene's witness of the Resurrection.
Massignon wrote that the Magdalene "remains a guide for us towards the
final Judgement." (EM 1, p.321-335 and p.293-295.)
In his research Massignon found Islamic places dedicated to the Seven Sleepers
in Algeria, Egypt, Turkey and Morooco and even some in Western Europe but he
was most surprised to find a chapel in a small hamlet in Brittany, France dedicated
to these seven saints. In their annual pigrimage, called a Pardon, a
ritual of forgiveness, he translated the ancient Breton story that was read
each year and discovered it to be the story as it is found in the Qur'an of
the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. With the permission of the local Bishop the annual
Pardon added the Muslim story to their pilgrimage in 1954 and both Muslims
and Christians come together every year to celebrate this shared story of Resurrection
to this day. It is held on the week-end following the feast of Mary Magdalene
on July 22nd.
May we take Massignon's suggestion and let Mary Magdalene's great
love of God and the women who were healed of "evil spirits and ailments"
through their great faith become an exemplary guide for us all. Massignon's
suggestion that Saint John, as the Virgin Mary's new son is a model
of substituionary prayer, or Badaliya, is an invitation to deepen our
faith experience and enhance our shared reflections.
Have a Blessed summer.
Peace to you.
Dorothy