Mary Magdalene

In honour of this great saint, who is a favourite of mine, I have (at least for the moment) added a slide show in the sidebar. I did so with reluctance (the truth is that the Amazon sales through my site have been poor recently, and I really could use some funds towards my textbooks), because so much of what is currently written and produced on the ever-popular topic of Mary Magdalene is so very far off the mark. Considering that tradition dates to the time of, at the very least, Gregory VII, I suppose I should not be surprised.

I do love legends, of course, but probably no Christian in history had the negative press which Mary Magdalene had - largely because Pope Gregory, in a most imaginative sermon, confused her with several other scripture characters (Mary of Bethany, the woman of sin who anointed Jesus), and she passed into history as the 'repentant prostitute,' though the scriptures say nothing of the kind. (As an aside, I remember once hearing an historian explain that, in first century Palestine, fully a third of Jewish women bore the names of either Mary or Salome. I wasn't surprised - when I was in school, it seemed that a third of the girls in my class were Mary or Kathleen - even the tally of Elizabeths, Annes and Margarets could not come close, even if a Linda here and there broke the monotony. Yet the confusion of Marys in the New Testament, however inevitable, was excessively creative.)

Yet today one is again diverted from the most important points about Mary Magdalene herself. She was a disciple of Jesus and, above all, the first witness to the resurrection! That seems to me to be quite enough privilege for any life, yet the powerful grace in this is overshadowed by all sorts of speculation about blood lines, whether she was Jesus' wife, if she was a bishop (...bishop? Sorry, guys, all of the disciples during Jesus' lifetime were Jews... so were those in Acts. It took a combination of post-resurrection insight and the Holy Spirit working through Jesus' Church for the lot of us to accept the inevitability of bishops.) For some reason, I'm vaguely reminded of how Pope John Paul II (among others) used a superb turn of rhetoric, intended to show the Christian regard for the female, where he'd speak of how Jesus had not conferred priesthood on his own mother (at the Last Supper.) John Paul knew full well that there is no anamnesis of what had not yet happened - and that it was only in the Spirit's guidance of the church that the Christian Eucharist and priestly ordination arose - the Last Supper was not an ordination ceremony nor Holy Communion. (I'm not going to dwell on how, were John Paul's statement taken for explanation rather than rhetoric, one could draw a logical conclusion that women should not be permitted at the Eucharist.) Yet does it not seem odd that, in using Mary (the mother of Jesus) as the 'one not ordained,' we can forget that this might divert us from remembering that she was the tabernacle itself - that she was the divine instrument for bringing his Body and Blood into the world in the first place?

Sorry... there is scriptural precedent for Elizabeths getting a bit overwhelmed and prophetic when they encounter the Marys.

When one such as Mary Magdalene is unjustly remembered as a prostitute, there still can be a certain beauty in the homiletics. The idea of the repentant becoming great saints is something we had all best remember - we all are the former, and, it is hoped, aspire to the latter. It is speculation that can irritate me overall. First off, it can be smug - along the lines of "What Suchandsuch could have accomplished were she only living in the 21st century...!" (I suppose Magdalene could have sent everyone a photograph of the man she mistook for the gardener on her mobile phone, or, at the very least, uploaded a digital image to Jesus.org, Sonsofthunder.com, or Zebedeefreshfish.com. Then, perhaps the Twelve would not have been so disinclined to believe her message.)

I'll admit that I patronise every cheap, second-hand bookstore I can find. Last summer, on what beastly hot day, I indulged in a copy of the Da Vinci Code (which I obtained, in well worn condition, for a few pennies.) I never was one much for detective stories, and the historian in me kept puzzling at some of the references, even if I found myself wondering what exactly was going on with Opus Dei. Yet it is a gripping novel, very nice for an afternoon on the train. I doubt its author could have imagined it would not only become a 'fifth gospel,' but would lead to having entire sections of booksellers' shelves devoted to 'commentaries.'

Let's step back a moment, if our concern is devotion rather than detective novels. Mary was the first apostle (by which I mean not one of The Twelve, but in the sense in which Paul of Tarsus used the term - witness to the Risen Lord - and to the Twelve.) She also was present at the crucifixion, and clearly was very involved in Jesus ministry (and possibly a source of his support.)

It's rather sad that the first apostle is lost in not only over a millennium of being thought a woman of the streets, but that her identity is totally lost today (because at least a repentant sinner transformed by grace is the identity of every saint) as she becomes the neglected mother of Jesus' illustrious and unknown family (nobility or royalty, I understand - indeed a feat for a carpenter from Galilee... too bad the genuine image of the true King of Kings is lost in the shuffle.) Or one can reduce her to a tragic figure because she had no hopes of being a bishop...

I wouldn't wish being a bishop on anyone, let alone a friend - and since Mary Magdalene is an old and dear heavenly friend of mine, I think her esteem in recorded experience is quite notable in and of itself...

Quoting here from the Revised English Bible, Mark 16: (Words of the angel) "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised, he is not here...But go and say to the disciples and to Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you... And they delivered all these instructions briefly to Peter and his companions. Afterwards, Jesus himself sent out by them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable message of eternal salvation."

Better ending than any of the Grail genealogies or DaVinci code commentaries, is it not? Not to mention that, considering how the Twelve behaved on the night of the Last Supper and day of the crucifixion (no accident that Jesus' first words were those of forgiveness), those women who clustered by the cross are models of courage and fidelity.