From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   God wants a contrite heart'   
      
   "The reason why our prayers ought to be frequent and brief is in case   
   the enemy, who is out to trap us, should slip a distraction to us if ever we   
   are long-drawn-out. There lies true sacrifice. 'The sacrifice which God   
   wants is a contrite heart' (Ps. 50:19). This indeed is the saving oblation,   
   the pure offering, the sacrifice of justification, the sacrifice of praise.   
   These are the real and rich thank offerings, the fat holocausts offered   
   by contrite and humble hearts."   
   --St. John Cassian.   
      
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   July 22nd - Saint Mary Magdalen, Penitent   
      
   Commenting on St. Mary Magdalene, the Roman Martyrology says that   
   after Our Lord expelled the devils from her, she became so perfect   
   that she was worthy to be the first person to see Him resurrected.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   The famous episode in a banquet where St. Mary Magdalene washed the   
   feet of Our Lord Jesus Christ with perfume reveals some facets of her   
   personality and her position in the Church.   
      
   We know that she was a sister of Lazarus. According to the traditions   
   and documents of that time, he was a person of high society, because   
   he had a rank of a prince and was very wealthy. He had been a prince   
   of a small people (tribe, clan) who had been incorporated into the   
   Jewish nation, and still had the title and honors of a prince even   
   though he no longer played a political role. Therefore, he and his two   
   sisters, Mary and Martha, were persons of a high social level.   
      
   However, Mary Magdalene strayed from the good path and became a public   
   sinner. She repented profoundly and became a model of two different   
   things: contemplation and penance.   
      
   Her contemplation was marked in contrast with the active life of   
   Martha, who censured Mary for not caring about the needs of the house   
   but only about staying close to Our Lord listening to Him and admiring   
   Him. Our Lord told her: “Martha, Martha, Mary has chosen the better   
   part, and it will not be taken from her.” She represents pure   
   contemplation, unlinked to the active life.   
      
   Her repentance, her penance, and her perfect fidelity prepared her to   
   stand with Our Lady and St. John at the foot of the Cross. Her penance   
   was so perfect and the pardon she received so great that she achieved   
   an extraordinary union with Our Lord. Studying her case, some serious   
   theologians even raised the hypothesis that perhaps penance is more   
   beautiful than innocence.   
      
   In the episode of the banquet, she represented penance, contemplation   
   and complete detachment from worldly goods. To the contrary, Judas   
   represented treason, hatred dissimulated under the pretext of charity,   
   and attachment to material things. The opposition between Mary   
   Magdalene and Judas could not be more flagrant.   
      
   After that episode, the opposition continued. She, the repentant   
   sinner, was faithful and stood at the foot of the Cross. He, the   
   damned Apostle, was the one who delivered Jesus Christ to be   
   crucified. She was the first to witness the Resurrection of Our Lord   
   and His ascension to Heaven to meet the Eternal Father; the impenitent   
   Judas hanged himself in despair and hurled himself into Hell to meet   
   the Devil. The antitheses are strong and expressive. On one hand, in   
   Mary Magdalene, we see repentance, pure contemplation and detachment   
   from worldly goods. On the other hand, in Judas, we find final   
   impenitence, total attachment to money and cupidity for worldly goods.   
      
   St. Louis Grignion of Montfort distinguished two types of human   
   psychology: those who are like Jacob and those like Esau. St. Mary   
   Magdalene is characteristic of one with the spirit of Jacob: she had a   
   superior soul turned toward heavenly things and indifferent to the   
   things of this world. Judas, the opposite, was a type like Esau. He   
   not only sold his birthrights for a plate of lentils, but much worse,   
   he sold his Savior for thirty coins.   
      
   Fra Angelico painted the scene of the kiss of Judas delivering Our   
   Lord to the Jewish soldiers. He painted Our Lord’s head surrounded   
   with a golden halo, and Judas’ head with a black halo. He wanted to   
   express that Judas was the son of iniquity, the damned Apostle whose   
   spirit was one of sin and darkness, while Our Lord’s was filled with   
   sanctity and light. We could apply this to the contrast between St.   
   Mary Magdalene and Judas. One had a golden halo, the other a black   
   halo.   
      
   When St. Mary Magdalene repented, she completely rejected all those   
   things that had induced her to sin. In her case, this constituted the   
   brilliant things of life. As penance she distanced herself totally   
   from such things, she completely detached herself from them. To   
   achieve such detachment she abandoned all links with the active life   
   and became a pure contemplative. Her contemplation, therefore, was   
   born from penance and detachment. It made her understand the   
   excellence of heavenly things and how every created thing was made to   
   serve and glorify heavenly things. So, nothing could be more   
   consistent for her than to take a very valuable perfume and pour it on   
   the divine feet of Our Lord Jesus Christ.   
      
   What had induced the despicable Judas to be attached to money, which   
   led him to hate Our Lord? Yes, I say hate, because no one betrays the   
   Man-God as he did only for a profit. What induced Judas to steal the   
   alms collected for the poor? No one can know for sure, but one can   
   raise a hypothesis.   
      
   When Our Lord was preaching His doctrine, Judas was probably thinking   
   about other things, for instance, about the prestige of the Pharisees   
   in Jerusalem and how he would like to do something to impress them.   
   So, he wanted to become rich and have a parallel career in order to be   
   considered an important man by the Pharisees. He started to think   
   about these things of this world and fell into sin, he started to   
   steal money. This habit made him more and more hostile to Our Lord.   
   The process continued to the final extreme, where Judas handed over   
   Our Lord to the ones he admired and wanted to impress, and also to   
   make some money.   
      
   The processes of both, Mary Magdalene and Judas, are logical. One has   
   the logic of the golden halo; the other, the logic of the black halo.   
   The pathway of a woman who was in sin and became a saint crossed the   
   pathway of an Apostle who was in grace and became a traitor.   
      
   What was the most profound reason why one repented and other fell into   
   despair? In my opinion it is because of their different relations with   
   Our Lady.   
      
   St. Mary Magdalene was always close to Our Lady, helping her and   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)