A
Homily for the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene
Jesus saith unto her, “Mary.” She turned herself, and
saith unto him, “Rabboni” (which is to say, “Master”).
—Saint John 20:16
Who was
Saint Mary Magdalene?
We know that
she was one of the closest associates of our Lord during his earthly
ministry, that she was present at his crucifixion, and was the first
witness of his resurrection. But about Mary Magdalene herself we
know very little.
Of course,
over the centuries, people have wanted to know more about her. In
times past, they pored through Scripture hoping to glean more
information; more recently they have simply consulted their
imaginations. “Mary” is a common name in the New Testament, as it
was a common name in first century Palestine. The semitic version
of the name is “Miriam,” which was the name of an important woman in
Jewish history. The first Miriam was the sister of Moses and
Aaron, and she was a prophetess in her own right. So it is not
surprising that many Jewish families named their daughters Miriam, or
Mary.
From time to
time, since the first century, Mary Magdalene has been identified with
one of the other New Testament Marys. At one time, she was
commonly identified with Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus and
Martha. Mary sat at Jesus’s feet, listening as he taught, while
Martha busied herself with the houehold chores. Jesus said that
Mary had the better part. According to Saint John’s Gospel, six
days before Jesus’s passion, Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus with costly
ointment and wiped his feet with her hair—much as the woman in today’s
Gospel lesson did.
In the
Eastern Church Mary Magdalene is commonly identified with the Mary to
whom Paul sends greetings in his letter to the Romans: “Greetings
to Mary, who has worked so hard for you.” In fact, there is an
entire story built around this identification. It is said that
Mary Magdalene, after the Resurrection, made her way to Rome, where she
was one of the many who taught there about Jesus before the arrival of
Peter and Paul. It is said, indeed, that she preached to the
Roman Emperor himself, and that in preaching to him she used an egg to
illustrate the Resurrection story. This, in legend at least, is
the origin of the Easter egg.
She has also
been identified, of course, with the sinful woman who washed our Lord’s
feet with her tears and annointed him in the house of Simon the
Pharisee. The account of that event was long prescribed as the
Gospel lesson for this feast day, and was, in fact, the Gospel lesson
read here this morning. The woman in that Gospel story is not
called Mary; but Mary Magdalene is named in the next paragraph of
Luke’s Gospel, immediately following what was read this morning.
You will
notice that the woman in today’s Gospel lesson is not called a
prostitute; only a sinful woman. The first document of which we
have any record in which the woman is called a prostitute is a sermon
by the bishop Gregory the Great in the sixth century. One must
suppose that he assumed that only a woman notorious for sexual
immorality would have so scandalized Simon the Pharisee.
The
Magdalene has also sometimes been identified with the woman taken in
adultery. The woman was brought to Jesus, and he was asked to
condemn her to be stoned; but he told the crowd that whoever was
without sin might cast the first stone. After the crowd dispersed
in shame, he told the woman, “Go and sin no more.” If you saw Mel
Gibson’s movie of “The Passion,” they you know that he identifies Mary
Magdalene with that woman.
Other recent
artistic presentations have been a bit more colourful. In Andrew
Lloyd Weber’s “Jesus Christ, Superstar,” Mary Magdalene is the woman
who sings, “I don’t know how to love him.” And in Nikos
Kazantzakis’s “Last Temptation of Christ,” she knows only too
well. The popular culture has still not gotten over Dan Brown’s
book, “The DaVinci Code,” in which the author borrows an idea from
another recent best-seller, “Holy Blood, Holy Grail,” to the effect
that Mary Magdalene and Jesus got married, moved to France, and
generated a line of descendants including various kings of France.
And,
finally, there are the contemporary feminists, who have tried to make
Mary Magdalene a poster girl in their campaign for female bishops and
priests and for other items of the feminist agenda.
Some of
these interpretations are obviously wrong; some may be right. All
we know for sure is what we read in Scripture.
Mary is
called a Magdalene, that is a woman from Magdala. Magdala was
(and is) a port town on the Sea of Galilee. In the first century,
there was a fish processing plant at Magdala, and fishermen from other
towns along the lake would have brought their catch to Magdala to
sell. The fish would then have been dried or smoked before being
shipped on to the cities, such as Jerusalem. Under the
circumstances, one might expect Magdala to have been a rough town, as
the towns frequented by sailors and commercial fishermen often are.
Mary was
numbered among the holy women who, along with the Twelve, formed part
of Jesus’s entourage as he roamed about Galilee and Judea. Saint
Luke names three of them: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna (although
he adds that there were many more); and he says that they were cured of
evil spirits or of disease. Mary, in particular, had seven demons
cast out of her. The women, in the curious language of the
Authorized Version, are said to have “ministered to [Jesus and the
Twelve] of their substance,” (which is to say, tending to them using
the women’s own possessions or property).
So Mary
Magdalene is someone whose life has been touched and changed by her
encounter with Jesus. In return, she has become his faithful
follower. She ministers to him of her substance. We might
say that she works, and prays, and gives for the spread of his
kingdom. Jesus, in one of his parables, warned that when a demon
is cast out of a person, and the person’s life is swept and garnished,
the demon will return and bring his demon friends with him. It is
clear that in Mary’s life, the place that was vacated by the demons was
filled instead with love and faith in the Lord, so there was noplace
for the demons to come back to.
On Good
Friday, we find Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross. It may
be that she was one of the women who followed him as he carried his
cross all the way from Pilate’s judgment hall to the mound of
Golgotha. She may, indeed, have been there when the nails were
driven through his wrists, and when he was pulled up to hang on the
cross in the hot April sun. We do know that she was there with
Mary, our Lord’s mother, and with the other women.
Of the
Twelve, the men whom Jesus had chosen, one—Judas—had sold him to the
temple authorities for money, and had already committed suicide.
Peter, the leader and spokesman of the Twelve had denied Jesus three
times at the house of Caiaphas the high priest, and was now in
hiding. The rest (except for John) had scattered in fear.
But the women were there, and Mary Magdalene among them.
One can only
imagine the amount of faith and love it must have taken to draw those
women to that place. It was a degree of faith and love that left
no room for their fear of the Roman soldiers, that shut out the
derision of the mob. It was faith and love that made them
persevere when others fell away.
And then, as
Good Friday drew to a close, just before the sunset that would begin
the sabbath, Mary Magdalene was there when Joseph of Arimathea laid the
body of Jesus in a tomb hewn out of the rock and rolled a stone to the
door of the tomb. Saint Mark says that she beheld (or took note
of) where he was lain.
On Easter
morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene set out for the tomb
with myrrh and spices to anoint Jesus’s body. She it was who
found the empty tomb and ran to tell the disciples. She lingered
behind, after Peter, James, and John had seen the empty tomb and gone
to tell the rest; and there, in the garden, she was the first to see
the risen Jesus. She did not recognize him at first, thought he
might be the gardener. But then he called her by name, “Mary,”
and she knew his voice. “Raboni,” she said, “Master,” and she
threw herself at his feet.
Don’t cling
to me he said, but go and tell my brethren. And thus it was that
Mary Magdalene became the apostle to the Apostles. A woman who
had been a sinner, who had been possessed by seven demons, was chosen
to be the first person to see Jesus after his resurrection.
Those who
centuries ago chose the Scripture lessons to be read at Mass found in
the great love poem called the Song of Songs, which represents the love
that is between Christ and his Church, a passage that seemed to
describe the thoughts of Mary Magdalene as she arose before dawn on the
first Easter morning, and, bearing myrrh, walked through the streets of
Jerusalem, past the sentries, to the gravesite of her Saviour:
I will rise
now, and go about the city in the streets, in the broad ways I will
seek him whom my soul loveth;
I sought him, but found him not.
The watchmen that go about the city found me, to whom I said, “Saw ye
him whom my soul loveth?”
It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my
soul loveth.
I held him, and would not let him go.
Church of Saint Mary Magdalene
Orange, California
24 July 2005
See a list of the deacon's homilies.