Daily Reflection Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

This passage from the beginning of Luke 8 in today’s gospel reading is the only time in all the gospel accounts where Mary Magdalene is mentioned outside the crucifixion and resurrection, where she appears (as if out of nowhere) prominently in all the gospels. It is the only way we know that Jesus cast out seven demons from her, whatever that may have meant. The Magdalene’s gratitude for Jesus knew no bounds. Was Mary the woman who showed great love, whose tears washed the feet of Jesus as he reclined at the table of Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7 immediately before today’s reading (“Therefore, I tell you, her sins, her many sins, must have been forgiven her, for she has shown great love.”)? She seems to vividly embody what Jesus said to Simon that day, that those who are forgiven little, love little. For Luke implies here that Mary was forgiven a great deal. For the Magdalene’s love for Jesus, especially as seen in John 20:11-18 where she meets the risen Jesus in that incredibly powerful scene John gives us, was so great that Jesus appeared to her first after his resurrection.

The women who followed Jesus and ministered to him “out of their own resources” are barely mentioned in the gospels. But they are mentioned, and we must assume that they played a prominent role in Jesus’ ministry, all from this one passage of Luke’s since Luke clearly states that they accompanied him along with the twelve, giving them a kind of parity that is difficult to deny. I continue to maintain that the Church has barely begun to understand all these things.

But let us conclude our reflection by talking of that great love of Mary Magdalene for Christ Jesus. In 1Peter 4:8 the Apostle tells us, “Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.” Paul told the Corinthians that, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” Indeed, we can say that everything else will come to an end except love, for as John has told us in 1Jn 4:16, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”

Do you worry that you will not be forgiven? Do you worry that you have failed somehow and have been found lacking? Do you worry that you cannot seem to find God? Then begin to seek to love. Not just for a chosen few, but for all people. Begin to focus out onto your neighbor whoever your neighbor may be (for everyone is our neighbor, everyone we meet no mater how). Mourn for them, rejoice with them, seek to help them anyway you can, be kind and giving and forgiving towards them all. Begin to practice this love in every way you can. Share yourself with all freely. Humble yourself to accept everyone without conditions or any judgements whatsoever, remembering what Jesus told us, that if you love those who love you, what merit is there in that? Seek to love them as Jesus loved us (the Lord’s final commandment). Try to see Jesus in them all. Don’t worry if you often fail. Keep seeking these things and God will begin to pour into your heart that love that covers a multitude of sins. Only love, and nothing else, no faith, no religious practices, no prayers, no good works, only love makes all things new. That, and that alone, is actually what Jesus came to give us. Everything else comes afterwards. Ask God for it every day. Practice it in every way you can, for practice makes perfect. As St. Augustine so rightly said so long ago, “Love, and do what you will!” Mary Magdalene had seven demons cast out from her by the Lord. Jesus can cast out our “demons” too, if we let him. And when that happens, we will know, as Mary Magdalene did so greatly, what love is, when our sins, our many sins are forgiven.