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En el nombre del Dios: Padre, Hijo, y Espiritu Santo. Amen.
Today we mark our first 5th Sunday Saints Day! How lovely that the first one we celebrate is the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene (transferred from July 22).
Much as we would ask a friend to pray with us for something, the saints are available to us too, offering their gifts, spiritual companionship, and prayerful support in moments of our lives where we need that.
For example, if we feel the need to deepen our relationship with Jesus, we might ask Mary of Bethany to share her gift of choosing to sit at the feet of the Master over the other tasks/duties of life that distract us.
Or we may ask Thomas to pray with us as we move through the moments of doubt that are part of every journey of faith.
Persons through whom sacred poetry seeks to emerge may call upon Caedmon, T.S. Eliot, or John Donne for their inspiration and poetic skill.
Today, we remember and ponder the life and gifts of Mary Magdalene, whose story is one of healing, courage, perseverance, and ultimately – of faithful witness.
A little background first: aside from the Biblical record that Jesus healed her of seven demons (a word which as a radically differnt meaning today), we don’t know much about Mary Magdalene. We do notice, however, as Heidi Schlumpf points out: that “Unlike other women in the Bible, Mary of Madgala is not identified in relation to another person; she is not anyone’s mother, wife, or sister. Instead, she is called Mary of Magdala, a title that implies some prominence...” i.
Here’s what we do know: Mary Magdalene left her home, a fishing city on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, to follow Jesus, whose ministry she financially supported. (Mk 15:41)
We know that she is mentioned by name 12 times in the Gospels, more than any other woman except for Jesus’ mother. We know that all four gospels tell us Mary Magdalene was present at Jesus’ crucifixion and burial; and was the first witness of the resurrection.
We know that scripture shows us a woman who was a devoted follower and supporter of Jesus, a woman who believed when she saw the impossible reality of the resurrection, a woman who courageously obeyed Jesus who sent her to tell the men about it - fully aware that as a woman, her testimony would be considered unreliable according to their law.
As scripture scholar, Mary Thompson, SSMN says, it’s “remarkable that all four gospels have the same story. ‘You can be sure that if it had been possible to eliminate those women…[as] the primary witnesses to the most important event of Christianity… the [gospel writers] would have done it,’ because of the prevailing attitude toward women in those times.” ii.
Well, over time the church did the next best thing – they defamed her. It was Pope Gregory, at the end of the 6th century, who preached that Mary Magdalene, the unnamed sinner who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, and the woman caught in adultery whose stoning Jesus forestalled, were not three different women, but one and the same person. “From this conflation, now rejected by scholars as well as the church, there came about the popular representation of Mary Magdalene as a penitent… prostitute.”iii.
I should mention that this was true only in the Western Church. “The Eastern Church has always honored her as an apostle, noting her as the ‘apostle to the apostles’ based on the account of the Gospel of John” iv. which we read today.
It wasn’t until 1969 that the Catholic Church acknowledged that Pope Gregory was wrong. That means for about 1400 years, Mary Magdalene, the faithful follower of Jesus, the apostle to the apostles, was categorically slandered as a prostitute. That she was also described as penitent does not mitigate this denigration of her.
Yet the healing Jesus began when he freed her from the grip of seven demons continues to this day, still restoring Mary Magdalene’s reputation and her rightful place of honor in the Christian community.
The Church is now sharing the evidence found in a variety of ancient texts which shows “that [Mary Magdalene’s] status as an ‘apostle,’ in the years after Jesus’ death, rivaled even that of Peter.” v.
That’s how healing works. We know from the many stories of Jesus’ healings in Scripture, that whenever Jesus heals, he restores a person to wholeness of life.
For example, the lepers whom Jesus cleansed, were able to return immediately to their families and live in the communities from which they had been exiled due to their disease. Restoration took a bit longer for Mary Magdalene.
That’s the other thing about healing – it is for us, but not just for us. When we have been restored in body, mind, or spirit, we come away with a new awareness of God’s powerful love and mercy, and that is what we are called to share with others.
When Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb and finds it empty, she cries. But in the most unexpected way, her tears are turned to joy as she hears her teacher and friend, call her by name. Suddenly there is nothing present but transforming love.
We don’t know how long they stayed together in that moment, but we do know that at some point Jesus tells Mary to go and tell the others, that they might be transformed too.
Mary doesn’t stop to ask Jesus to explain how he did it – she doesn’t ask to understand at all. She simply responds to the love of Christ that fills her and urges her on, and so she goes to tell the others, taking with her an unexpectedly new awareness of God’s reconciling love in Jesus. That which she had once known from a human point of view, Jesus her Rabboni, has been transformed, and because of that everything has become new (2 Cor 5:17).
When someone has been beaten down by the demons of fear, loneliness, or depression; when they have been oppressed by poverty, marginalization, or violence; when they have been forsaken by friends and family, it is as if they are living in exile – cut off from the reconciliation Jesus died and rose to give us all. And the longer someone lives in exile, the more their hope and sense of self-worth dwindle away.
It is to these beloved, thirsting ones that God sends us as witnesses, because as we hear in the book of Judith, God is the God of the lowly, the helper of the oppressed, protector of the forsaken, and the savior of those without hope. (Jud 9:11)
Faithful witnessing, like Mary Magdalene did, means carrying the life-giving waters of Baptism out to those who are athirst for the living God. (Ps 42:2) It means trusting God and God alone to judge them. It means inviting them into relationship just as they are and trusting God to take them and us where we need to go. Faithful witnessing means proclaiming by all we say and do the Good News of our redemption in God in Christ.
History did not treat Mary Magdalene well as a witness, and may not treat us well either – for a while anyway – but that isn’t what matters. What matters is that Mary loved Jesus so deeply that she was open to receive his Holy Spirit by which she was healed, forgiven, and renewed, then sent into the world to tell the Good News of his resurrection. Hers was truly a faithful witness and we are all beneficiaries of that.
As we seek to strengthen ourselves to be faithful witnesses, individually and as a church; as we seek to connect to our local community and serve the needs God leads us to there, we can count among our assets the friendship and availability of St. Mary Magdalene to support us.
All of heaven wants us to succeed. How wonderful to be so abundantly supported! Amen.
Sources:
i. US Catholic, Who Framed Mary Magdalene? (Vol. 65, No. 4, pages 12-16), April, 2000
ii. ibid.
iii. Robert Ellsberg, All Saints, Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for our Time (The Crossroad Publishing Co., NY, 2002), 312.
iv. Bible History Daily, Was Mary Magdalene Wife of Jesus? Was Mary Magdalene a Prostitute? How did her reputation evolve “from saint to sinner”?, Birger A Pearson, 03/17/2018.
v. Smithsonian Magazine, Who Was Mary Magdalene?, James Carroll, June, 2006. www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-was-mary-magdalene-119565482/
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