A recent blessing...by Leloup
I recently came across this author whose last name is "Leloup". While I haven't read much of his work, the little I have read has had a profound impression in me.
The name was in a reference by another author and her huge deep work - Cynthia Bourgeault - on the subject of Mary Magdalene I was interested in, and with this book, it was my 2nd. or 3rd. major reference I was onto, reading attentively, silently, letting each word penetrate the noise of my disorderly 'mind' and my ever-present tinnitus (OMG!), and hopefully, not be filtered out by those enmeshing voices and sounds!
Bourgeault is 'talking' about the scene at the Resurrection site, and in developing a context talks about Jesus' life, short years before this moment. Now, as a friend recently reminded me, this 'Jesus' "was a 33 year-old young man" - "un muchachito" - an image that came to my friend as she was looking at a large crucifix that ended up residing with her recently, as a heirloom. That Crucifix was the center of their large family, as a very stern, devout Father gathered the family - and her 'softer' Mother - and prayed with, and to, several times during the week at dinner time.
I imagine myself as a young child after, or before dinner, gathering with my entire family in front of a 'crucified image' and its painful, carnal, not understandable, hard-to-look at figure hanging from nails in hands and feet. Quite an impression! - as I write this - and I can only imagine what an impression that would have been to several young minds and hearts barely beginning to open their lives and hearts to life!
A description of his ascetic nature...: "...John is described as wearing clothes of camel's hair, and living on locusts and wild honey. John proclaims baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin,...John the Baptist (c. 1st century BC – c. AD 30) was a Judaean mission preacher active in the area of Jordan River in the early 1st century AD. He is also known as John the Forerunner in Christianity, John the Immerser in some Baptist Christian traditions, and Prophet Yahya in Islam. He is sometimes alternatively referred to as John the Baptiser....John is mentioned by the Roman Jewish historian Josephus and he is revered as a major religious figure in Christianity, Islam, the Baháʼí Faith, the Druze Faith, and Mandaeism, the latter in which he is considered to be the final and most vital prophet. (1)
Further on John's ascetic dedication, this reference: "...there were specific guidelines and restrictions involved with the Nazirite vow. Three guidelines are given to the Nazirite. Numbers 6:3-7 tells us that he/she was to abstain from wine or any fermented drink, nor was the Nazirite to drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins, not even the seeds or skins. Next, the Nazirite was not to cut his hair for the length of the vow. Last, he was not to go near a dead body, because that would make him ceremonially unclean. Even if a member of his immediate family died, he was not to go near the corpse. (2)
So that, it is presented throughout these readings, whether Bourgeault's but also thru these and multiple other references that the path that initially Jesus was set upon was one of self-cleansing in an ascetic sense, a separation from the personal, self-appreciation - not in an ego aggrandizement way but in the acceptance of humanity, one's and that of those around oneself in the~our walk thru life. While John could not go near a dead body, Jesus did - and 'resurrected' them! Jesus exposed Himself to the 'un-cleans': the leper, the blind, the condemned by sickness, by rejection, by difference!
And to this, Bourgeault points to the anointing of Jesus: "...for Jesus, the anointing (whether at Simon's house, or Simon the Leper or 'one of the Pharisees'- all quotes from different Gospel versions (3)) freed him from his self-identification with the Nazirite role and allowed him to trust his heart. ...(This was)...the course deviation of his ministry, away from exo-piety and toward kenotic love. (6)
More on that later.
But, the elephant in the room...who 'anointed' Jesus? "(as)...the anointing of Jesus' love freed her from "seven demons" and launched her on the path toward inner integration." ..."...for Jesus, the anointing freed him from his self-identification with the Nazirite role and allowed him to trust his heart. ...! "Her"? - Mary Magdalene: "...the hands of an unidentified woman who appeared out of nowhere at a private dinner bearing a jar of precious perfume and sealed him with the unction of her love."(4) ...and Her tears, cascading so much love that Jesus 'read' the judgemental mind of Simon and said: "...“Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”(5)
..."for she loved much..."
So, speaking of blessings...Jean-Ives Leloup, who has also researched and written on Mary Magdalene, also a deep and moving book, takes off from a similar sequence, in this case the Beatitudes, and inspired by that spirit and this one Cynthia B. points to, writes in p.80 of his book on Mary Magdalene:(7)
"May each day bring you a little less under the sway of the fears, inhibitions, and lies that are certainly the heritage of your individual and collective past, yet in which, (consciously or unconsciously), you still indulge in the present.
And may each day bring you more and more surrender to freedom and love. For these are the fruits of your most beautiful dreams, and of the purest desire, that - consciously or unconsciously, but consciously above all, so, as to savor it fully - you can ever experience in the present."
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