Search
Feast of St. Mary Magdalene
-
July 22, 2022"Him Whom My Heart Loves"
On this the feast day of Mary Magdalene, I’ll make this reflection about her, since she has readings dedicated to her feast. Mary Magdalene is unique among women in the Gospels in that she alone, other than the Blessed Mother herself, is mentioned by name in every Gospel account (and prominently in most). She is also unusual in that all the Gospels mention her only at their very ends (though Luke mentions her briefly in Chapter 8 with other women following the Lord, saying that Jesus cast out seven demons from her), at the death and then resurrection of Jesus and it is in the resurrection accounts where she figures most prominently, especially in John 20 where we read from today on her feast.
The resurrection accounts, which, of course, every Gospel account contains, are of all the stories in the Gospels, the most varied. None of the four gospels agree on virtually anything of the resurrection. The accounts of angels are all different (including how many) as are who were the first witnesses (although all agree it was women disciples), whether the stone was rolled away during the visit or before or whether or not there was an earthquake. Only Mark explicitly states that it was Mary Magdalene who was the first to see Jesus resurrected, though John seems to make it clear, if not exactly explicit. Matthew states that both she and “the other Mary” both witnessed his resurrection first. Only Luke fails to say that any of the women saw Jesus resurrected that Easter Sunday morning, though the angel tells them (including Mary Magdalene) that he is risen.
I suppose that given the nature of the resurrection, it should not surprise us that the four gospel accounts are all so different concerning it. It is unlike any other event in history or to come. Someone once said that if there had been news reporters and video cameras in ancient Israel and they were there at the tomb all trying to record the resurrection, they would have seen and recorded nothing. For the resurrection is uniquely an event of faith. It was Mary Magdalene’s great faith that enabled her to be the first to witness Jesus risen from the dead. It is also very telling that she, and not any of the Apostles or even the Disciple Whom Jesus Loved, was given that great privilege (St. Ignatius Loyola was always insistent that the Blessed Mother was actually the first to see him risen, which makes eminent sense even if the Gospels do not record it). The fact that the Gospels all tell us this about a woman, in a time when women were very much understood as decidedly second class citizens, makes its truth all the more authentic. Indeed, it is women, and not the Apostles, who continuously throughout the Gospels are described as having great faith and upon whom Jesus is always bestowing abundant blessings. Jesus was always asking the Apostles and other men (except the Roman Centurion, of all people), where is your faith, or calling them, you of little faith!
But even more importantly, as the first reading today from the Song of Songs (which, along with Esther, is the only other book in the Hebrew bible that does not contain the word “God,” though God, as the Beloved, is on every page) makes plain, it is Mary Magdalene’s great love of the Lord that brings her this singular honor. Her great love is seen in her presence at the cross, in her arriving to the tomb so early after the Sabbath, in her weeping at the empty tomb and begging the “gardener” to tell her where he laid Jesus, and in her clinging so fast to the feet of Jesus that he had to, ever so gently I’m sure, lift her up. Her love becomes an example to us all. Three times Jesus would ask the deeply repentant Peter when he finally met his resurrected Lord, “Do you love me more than these?” Jesus said about the unnamed woman who anointed his feet with her tears (could she have been the Magdalene?), “It was because of her great love that her sins, her many sins, have been forgiven her.” St. Paul tells us most emphatically that without love, everything else, no matter how grand, is useless. And at the Last Supper, as his final commandment, Jesus told us to love one another as he has loved us. Surely it is love that is, as he revealed to another of his beloved women disciples, the “one thing necessary.”
On this feast of the great Mary Magdalene, let us all pray that something of her enormous love will fill us also, that perfect love of God (who is love) for us that casts out all fear. That love of the Father’s for us that was so great that he sent his only begotten Son to save us. That love, as Paul told the Corinthians, than which there is nothing greater and that will have no end.
