Beyond the ordinary

 

Mary the Magdalene- (July 22)

 

Mary the Magdalene-The Apostle to the Apostles. Magdalene means “the tower” or “the pillar”.  Mary was the pillar for the higher consciousness -the Wisdom consciousness that Jesus taught. She understood his teachings, even when the other apostles did not. Unfortunately, this “Wisdom Lens” for Jesus’ teachings has been mostly ignored over the last 1600 years in favor of a more base, dualistic interpretation that sorely minimalizes Jesus’ true message.

 

She IS Mary THE Magdalene….not, as she is frequently called, Mary of Magdala. The town that now exists on the shores of the Sea of Galilee called Magdala, was known, in Jesus’ time, as Taricheae (Ter-A-kay). There were many other towns in the area with Magdala as part of their name (Migdal, in Hebrew) and these were towns that typically had associated with them towers or fortifications, such as Migdal Eder (Tower of the Flock) and Migdal El (Tower of God). It is believed by many scholars now that what we know today as the town of Magdala received that name sometime during the 4^th Century when this area, under the rule of Christian Emperors, was identifying and developing the region’s holy sites for pilgrimage and a kind of “tourist industry” of sorts was growing; numerous faithful were traveling to Palestine looking for places where they could pray and honor the prophets and heroes of the bible. Pilgrimage routes were being established and many churches were being built on these sites, one being a church dedicated to Mary the Magdalene.

 

The point in mentioning this is that to continue to refer to this Apostle to the Apostles as Mary of Magdala actually diminishes her true status.  She is referred to in bible texts always as Mary (the) Magdalene, (Mary the Tower, Mary the Pillar) never as Mary of Magdala and when mentioning her, her name always is mentioned BEFORE the other women who were followers of Jesus. This points to her true status as a leader within the followers of Jesus- a true Apostle. The Apostle to the Apostles.

 

In this morning’s First Reading we hear a love story. This is an allegorical story and has traditionally be interpreted as the Love Christ has for his church. In today’s Cosmic theological understanding, we could take this as God’s Love for ALL God’s creation-especially Humankind.  It is also traditionally read for the Feast of St Mary the Magdalene.  The Magdalene and Jesus had a very tender and special relationship.  This writing can be seen as not only God’s tender love for us, it can been seen as Mary’s Love (meaning our Love) for God.

 

Several years ago, Pope Francis decreed that July 22^nd would be celebrated as the Feast of Mary the Magdalene. 

This is truly significant.  The liturgical celebration of most saints on their “feast day”  is remembered as memorials.  However, those liturgies formally classified as “Feasts” have an elevated significance (such as Easter, Christmas, the Transfiguration, the Ascension, and others).  So, this is big change!

 

This move helps, in part, to start a healing process and repair some of the damage done to the memory of Mary the Magdalene and to the status of women over the last 1500 years.

Ever since Pope Gregory (the) 1st referred to Mary as a “sinful woman” and inferred that she was a carnally depraved prostitute in a sermon delivered in the 6^th century (even though evidence in the canonical Gospels would refute this), Mary the Magdalene has been viewed as the reformed prostitute and that EVEN SHE could be forgiven. Furthermore, this Pope believed that her forgiveness wiped away Eve’s Original Sin.  The damage resulting from this put all women in the category of “sexually suspect”, and it promoted the Original Sin and atonement theology that was taking hold through the efforts of Augustine, Jerome, Anslem, and others which even further subjugated women and further solidified the institutional and patriarchal power of the Church in Rome.

 

This treatment of women was SO contrary to what Jesus did and what he taught.  Jesus didn’t condemn women and he didn’t subjugate them.

 

Instead, he lifted them up, healed them, and made whole the sick and the poor; and he did this for all the marginalized in his society-including women- especially women!  

I’ve preached on this before, using the examples of the Samaritan Woman at the well where Jesus acknowledges her and gives her status.

Then again, in the story of Martha and Mary….(the Gospel and homily for next week!) where Jesus gives Martha a special invitation to join him.

 

Then we have the woman caught in adultery who’s about to be stoned, Jesus turns the tables on those judging her and they leave in shame.

 

And then the woman suffering from years of hemorrhaging dares to touch his cloak. Jesus does not rebuke her, in fact, he addresses her with an endearment, calling her “daughter” as she is healed.

And Jesus frequently addressed the women using the word “woman”, which sounds cold to our ears, but in doing so, he was actually lifting that woman up-recognizing them and giving them status within a society that gave them little status or recognition.

And todays example:

Jesus appears first to Mary the Magdalene and commissions her to tell the others he is risen:  (icon)

Mary arrives at the tomb weeping and not finding Jesus there, the two angels ask her why she is crying. She answers in bewilderment that someone has taken him, and to where, she does not know. When she turns around, she sees someone she thinks is the gardener, and he asks her the same question, “Why are you crying?” And again she answers with her bewilderment. It is only when Jesus speaks her name, “Mary” does she realize, this is her beloved Jesus. Among other instructions in their brief conversation, Jesus commissions her to tell the others with these words:

 “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary is the FIRST to be told told about the future Ascension and is the first to proclaim the Resurrection. The men do not believe her, but she is not silenced.  She understands Jesus’ message. She understands Jesus’ teachings through a higher developed spiritual consciousness…much more than the other disciples.  She understands that Jesus’ parables and teachings are not literal. They are complex messages of mystical paradox: (ie)

“The last shall be first and the first shall be last.” and,

“One must die, like the seed, in order to live”.

She “gets it”. 

Jesus could have appeared first to anyone, but he chose The Tower-The Pillar of the Apostles, Mary. This woman who’s deeper, mature spirituality understood Jesus’ messages without doubt or question.  This woman, who is mentioned in all three of the Gospels, stands firmly, faithfully witnessing the horror at the foot of the cross. She did not run. She was faithful to the end. She is the archetype for all of us and especially for women.

Like Mary, the mother of Jesus, she held a solid, moral compass and followed it. She was vulnerable, courageous, and compassionate.

A small example of her compassion is reflected in the Second Reading. The apostles are teary and saddened after Jesus spoke to them and left. “How are we to go among the unbelievers and announce the Good News-the Kin-dom (Realm of the Son of Humankind)? They did not spare his life, so why should they spare ours?”

Clearly they are afraid.  And Mary does not rebuke them (even after the many times they have missed the mark with Jesus.) Instead, she comforts them in compassion, telling them, “Do not remain in sorrow and doubt, for His Grace will guide you and comfort you…….(and continues with)…for he has prepared us for this.”

Powerful, compassionate and uplifting words. And because of these words, the hearts of her brothers in Christ were able to turn  towards and discuss the meaning of the Teacher’s words. 

Her compassionate message is very timely for us, too… in these days!

For nearly 2000 years the Passion Story has been told through a lens that implies Jesus died alone, because his friends fled, completely overlooking (or ignoring) the faithfulness of the women, and Mary the Magdalene, in particular. 

 

There is a saying that “religion reflects society”.  Jesus’s actions and teachings were so contrary to those in power and his society’s values…those values that he turned them upside down! -a dangerous thing to do.  He challenged the status quo.

All.

The.

Time.

 

Even his male disciples questioned him as to why he does this or that. They just “didn’t get it”. At one point, Jesus shows his very human frustration and tells Peter “Get behind me, Satan!” Because Peter, (being Peter) really doesn’t get it. He still sees everything through his ego and the “lens of the world”, not the lens of God.  His spiritual understanding hasn’t evolved yet. He’s still walking in the world’s ways, not God’s ways.

But, Mary the Magdalene, DID get it. She understood. In many of the gnostic writings we are told of some of the friction between the male apostles and Mary-Especially between Peter and Mary. There appears to be jealousy towards Mary because of her more mature spiritual understanding. The spiritual understanding of the men will develop eventually too, and this does not take away from Mary’s profound wisdom understanding so much earlier.

Like Mary, the women became spiritual leaders of their faith community and were frequently mentioned in some very early Christian writings, but as the canonical status of these writings were being debated and agreed upon, most of them that mentioned these women were assigned “gnostic” status and others were minimized and even (some modern bible scholars assert) completely edited out or re-written in favor of elevating Peter. 

 

The Eastern Church was influenced, of course by all this too, yet they always held her in high esteem and honored as the Apostle to the Apostles.  She was never denigrated to a prostitute.

We can see in the Icon of Mary the Magdalene, examples of how she is remembered and honored:  (icon)

The egg she is holding:  Tradition says that as she, being a woman of wealth, was readily able to travel beyond Galilee, she did so and evangelized.  When she arrived in Rome and presented herself to the Emperor Tiberius Caesar to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus, she carried an egg in her hand to illustrate message (as a chick breaks through its shell into a new life), with the proclamation, “He is risen!” The Emperor mocked her saying that Jesus had no more risen than the egg in her hand was red. Legend says that immediately the egg turned red as a sign of the truth of her message. This is why the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholics always celebrate Easter with lots of red dyed eggs!

You’ll see the vessel of anointing oil held by her. Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics celebrate the Third Sunday of Pascha (i.e. the second Sunday after Easter) as the 'Sunday of the Myrrh-bearers', and give special honor to a circle of women from Galilee who had aided Jesus and the apostles; known as the Holy Myrrh-bearers. They are given special recognition on this day due to the care they demonstrated on the first Easter morning by going to the tomb of Jesus with spices and oils, to anoint his body. Mary the Magdalene is always listed FIRST in this cluster of holy women mentioned:

Mary Magdalene, Mary of Clopas, Joanna, Susanna, and Salome.

Today, with more and more biblical scholars re-examining the scriptures from the earliest texts and trying to provide clearer translations without the patriarchal and cultural biases of the past, the scriptures are becoming even more alive and relevant for today’s world.  Scholars are re-visiting the “so called “gnostic gospels of Thomas, Philip, Mary, Mary the Magdalene and others for clues and deeper insights to the “Wisdom Jesus” that has been de-emphasized and greatly overlooked.  

 

This re-visiting of the ancient texts is exciting and it is revealing to us just how revolutionary Jesus’ teachings were for his time and how very timely these Wisdom teachings are for us, today!

 

We can explore what this “Wisdom” lens in scripture is, when  exploring the Book of Wisdom in our Catholic Bible.  God is explored through the lens of the Divine Feminine.  We get to see all the other attributes of our Creator God.  It’s exciting and helps us create a more complete understanding of God.

So today, like Jesus, let us honor Mary the Pillar, the Tower and we lift up and honor the women who followed Jesus  and carried the Good News to others.

How might we best honor her and the women of the early Christian communities?

 Let us insist upon true equity for all women and to witness and celebrate the strengths, the courage, the wisdom, the unique spiritual gifts women have to offer for we are ALL a part of the Body …the ONE BODY OF CHRIST. 

Let us all go forth, as the Magdalene did, with Christ Love and Compassion. We can carry all this to heal a hurting world and to build the Realm of God….the Kin-dom, here on this earth.

Finally, let us continue to develop our spiritual relationship with God, following the teachings of Jesus, our Brother and the actions of Mary his Pillar.

Let it be so.

 

Sources:

*“The Meaning of Mary Magdalene-Discovering the woman at the heart of Christianity”, by Cynthia Bougeault

“Mary Magdalene, The First Apostle-The Struggle for Authority”, by Ann Graham Brock

“She Does Not Run”, Center for Action and Contemplation, July 21, 2020

“The Gospel of Mary Magdalene”, Translated and edited by Jean-Yves LeLoup

“Great Love-Mary Magdalene”, Center for Action and Contemplation ,July 23, 2020

“Come and See-Mary Magdalene” , Center for Action and Contemplation, July 24, 2020

“Mary Magdalene”, Center for Action and Contemplation, April 25, 2018

“Faithful to the End”, Center of Action and Contemplation, July 22, 2020

“St Mary Magdalene’s Feast Day”, by Richard Sontag, Tekton Ministries March 29, 2022

“Where Was Mary Magdalene From?”, Bible History Daily, by Marek Dospel, November 30,2022