for July 22
Feast of Mary Magdalene

Who is Mary Magdalene?

We meet her for the first time in Luke’s gospel (Luke 8:1-3), when Jesus is travelling about, teaching and performing mighty works. Reading these few verses carefully reveals much about who she is:

Accompanying him were the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources.

Mary Magdalene is named first, a leader and independent woman who is identified by the place she came from, not by her family or marital relationships. She is someone who has suffered greatly: seven (a symbolic number) demons (thought to be the cause of all affliction) had gone out from her, suggesting the fullness of her healing by the Jesus she now follows. Mary, like Joanna and Susanna, is a woman of some means, able to support the disciples from their own wealth, perhaps foreshadowing the way the early church was said to share all things in common (as in Acts 2:44 and 4:32).

So when we meet Mary Magdalene, we find a major figure in the life of the early church. But before we can consider the pivotal role she played, we must, sadly, stop and make clear who she is not.

Mary Magdalene is not the unnamed woman of Luke 7:37-38, who anoints Jesus’s feet, prompting Peter to complain that Jesus would let a known sinner do such a thing. Jesus, of course, rebukes Peter with the words that “he who has forgiven little loves little.” Nor is Mary Magdalene the unnamed woman of John 8:1-11, who Jesus will not condemn. These women deserve to be honored for their own places in the gospel, not conflated or confused with Mary Magdalene.

In a similar way, Mary Magdalene and the unnamed woman of Luke 7:37-38 are often confused with Mary of Bethany. In the fourth gospel (John 12:1-8), Mary of Bethany also anoints Jesus, this time to the objection of Judas, who would have sold the ointment and given the proceeds to the poor. Once again, one of the men following Jesus fails to understand what is happening right in front of him, and Jesus rebukes him.

Now that we know who Mary Magdalene is—and isn’t—let’s consider why we honor her feast day.

Mary is most visible in all four gospels at their most important moments. She is standing by Jesus as he is crucified (John 19:25 and Mark 15:40, which also makes note of the “many other women” who stood with her). She follows Jesus’s body to the tomb (Mark 15:47), returning to anoint him. She sees both the empty tomb and the resurrected Jesus (Mark 16:9 and Matthew 28:1-10). The most detailed account of this last encounter is today’s gospel, and it is perhaps the best-known story of Jesus’s resurrection, because the first part of it is read each year on Easter day.

It is a gospel that even a lifetime of Easter sermons cannot exhaust. It begins with Mary grieving, weeping for the loss of the Lord in whom she believes, and who—as we will see in a few verses—she loves deeply. Her grief is compounded by confusion: she cannot find Jesus’s body, and she is challenged first by two angels and then by Jesus himself. Amazingly, Mary Magdalene doesn’t recognize him, suggesting perhaps both the depths of her anguish and the unanticipated transformation of his risen life. That Mary thinks Jesus is the gardener is a bittersweet irony, recalling how much of scripture is set in a garden, from the first one that God walked in the cool of the evening to the place of Jesus’s agony and betrayal in another.

Then Jesus calls Mary by name. How much can we hear in that one word, that simple act! He addresses her and her alone, claiming her as his own. In that moment she recognizes him, even as he tells her not to cling to old relationships and assumptions. Then Jesus commissions her to ‘go tell’ the wonder of his resurrection.

Within Mary Magdalene’s proclamation “I have seen the Lord” is also the claim “I have seen it all”—her suffering, his healing power, his ministry, his horrible death, her own grief and desperate confusion, his new life. That is why every year at the Easter vigil we recite the old prayer that insists “Tell us, Mary!” That is why the church celebrates Mary Magdalene today as the apostle to the apostles, the first to proclaim the good news of the resurrection. In Mary Magdalene, we find a strong and understanding companion for our own seasons of suffering, whether from disease, despair or injustice. Her example invites us to walk the path that lies before us and to emerge proclaiming the triumph of life over death.
—BJ Brown

Today’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.