St. Mary Magdalene, the Apostle to the Apostles.
July 22 2019: Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene
We are celebrating today one of the few women who played a
very special part in the life and the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ; Mary
Magdalene, the woman of all the social and theological controversies.
I was scanning a book few days ago, written by one Filipino
Bishop, Most Rev. Teodoro Bacani, emeritus of Novaliches Diocese, titled, “Jesus
goes public”. Among the titles or articles, one is about, “the Women in the
life of Jesus”. Bishop Bacani rightly states that the first woman in the life
of our Lord was the Blessed Virgin Mary, his Mother. But after Mary, undeniably,
one of the women who occupied a very special place in the Lord’s life was Mary
Magdalene.
Looking to the biblical context, but also in the historical one,
the society in which Jesus lived and taught was patriarchal and hierarchical,
like many of our cultures and traditions today, that is, the husband was the
head of the household, and women, children and slaves were subordinate to him. The
roles and tasks were clearly divided between men and women. We read for example
in the Gospel account on the multiplication of bread, that “the number of those
who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children” (Matthew
14:13-21). As to say, the women counted for nothing.
But in this so highly patriarchal society, we read that many
women played a very significant role in the mission of the Lord. Some as
subject who then will become actors, others as first class actors. The women
followers of Jesus are especially prominent in the Gospel, mostly on the accounts
of his death and resurrection. They see Jesus die; they see where he was buried
and they find his tomb empty on Easter Sunday.
One of those very special women was Mary Magdalene. To say
it true, as wrote a certain Damian Thompson an English journalist in his
article about Mary Magdalene, “No one in the Bible has been as elaborately
misrepresented as Mary Magdalene.” But the Bible accounts are very clear about
her. So wrote Damian “What do the Gospels tell us about Mary of Magdala? That
she was known as ‘Magdalene’, had seven demons cast out of her by Jesus, was
present at the foot of the cross, discovered the empty tomb and was the first
person to whom the risen Lord appeared.”
Mary Magdalene is not and has never been the ‘evil woman’ as
represented in some movies and writings. She is one of the greatest disciples
of the Lord, and not only so, she is, as Pope Francis recently admitted, “the
first witness to Jesus’s resurrection”, the Apostle towards the Apostles. She
is the one Jesus sent to tell the other apostles the good news of his
resurrection. The Gospel of John therefore portrays Mary Magdalene as the first
apostle (John 20:17).
After the example of Mary Magdalene, many other women played
a unique role in the Life of our Lord. and even today, in our Churches, women are
very special protagonist of evangelization. Not only that more than 75%, to not
exaggerate, of mass attendants today are women and children, but also women are
the most committed people in the life of the Church. Though the Church as hierarchy
is still extremely patriarchal in its organization, women are those who sustain
it, from financially to human and statistically point. Women are the most active
Christians; this is a truth. They are also the most devoted.
In a society like that of Jesus where, women were not called
to testify, and where their word didn’t lend credibility to any historically
recorded event, Mary Magdalene stood as the first witness of the greatest
mystery of our faith. Like her, may women, in our today societies give rise to
a Church where Jesus will be seen as the first and the only one we should
really own.
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