Word to the Wise
Wednesday, July 22, 2020 - July 22 - St. Mary Magdalene
[Cant 3:1-4b or 2 Cor 5:14-17 and John 20:1-2, 11-18]Jesus said to her, 'Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalen went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and then reported what he told her. [John]
After Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalen surely stands out as one of the most vivid and important female characters in the gospels. Some interpreters have unjustifiably identified her with the woman in the Gospel According to Luke who washes the feet of Jesus [Luke 7:36-50] and have branded her as a prostitute. The Gospel According to Mark states that she was someone from whom Jesus had cast out seven demons. [Mark 16:9 - longer appendix]. The early church gave her the title APOSTLE TO THE APOSTLES because, in the Gospel According to John, she became the first to announce the resurrection of Jesus. She became the first Christian preacher. We Dominicans, the Order of Preachers, have a special reverence for her in that role.
The Gospel According to John seems to make every encounter between Jesus and someone else a kind of mini-drama. The encounter with Marh Magdalen after the resurrection is no exception. There is a comic moment when Jesus asks her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" and she thinks he is the gardner! But when he speaks her name, her impulse is to embrace him. He instead sends her to announce that the empty tomb which seemed to be the end of hope had become the symbol of hope because Jesus is risen from the dead! Her faith ["I have seen the Lord!] is not ust personal but becomes the faith of the church. St. Paul would make the same claim to be an apostle because of a similar experience with the Risen Lord. [1Cor 9:1] Her role in making this announcement has become a symbol of hope to women who have been barred from preaching from the pulpit for so many centuries in our church!!
Today we celebrate this woman of faith. Her preaching challenges us to do our own! AMEN