Apostoli_Viae

St. Mary Magdalen - Feast - July 22nd

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This amazing Saint, although not a Carmelite saint, inspired St. Teresa of Avila and many others down through the centuries.  As the Church teaches, we always look at Scripture to form our understanding.  In particular, we look to Scripture to help us with the life of those living with Jesus, remembering that sometimes those who are very important are also very humble, such as St. Joseph and our Mother, Mary.  Just like in their case, we do not have many words actually spoken by Mary Magdalene, but Scripture does help us place her as an important person.  We will consider that, and then examine the legends about her life after Jesus ascended into Heaven and finish with a short history of the change made to how she is celebrated in the Liturgical Calendar.

Scriptural References
Fourteen of them exist and let us know that she played a significant role in Jesus’ public life. To be chronologically correct, we look to His Word first before we consider anything else.  To put these references in context with Jesus’ life, they can be separated into four moments:  His ministry, the Crucifixion, the Tomb (and it being empty), and finally, the Resurrection.  We first learn that Mary Magdalen followed Jesus and supported Him in His ministry in Luke 8:22, where we also learn that He healed her of seven demons.  This transformation has been a source to countless followers of Jesus over the centuries, and it is certainly an indication of how His ministry played out in the lives He touched.

Next, Matthew and John place her at the foot of the Cross during the Crucifixion (Mt. 27:56 and Jn. 19:25) Mark places her watching at a distance (Mk. 15:40).  Her physical position being mentioned indicates both her devotion, showing us what it means to have a steadfast spirit and stay close to Jesus no matter the circumstances and it shows us her importance among the Evangelists.

St. Matthew observes that Mary sits opposite the Tomb (Mt. 27:61), showing her presence at the Tomb (Mt. 28:1, Mk 16:1) and, more poignantly, by being there, she teaches us to stay and wait in sorrow.  Mark tells of her working with Salome to bring spices, instructing us to work with others and keep serving even when it seems all is lost.  With that same end in mind, Jn 20:1 describes her going to the tomb early on the first day of the week.

Mary Magdalen stays with the emptiness, and the misery changes to the mystery of the Resurrection in His appearance to her in Mark 16:9.  John’s Gospel (20:11-18) also records this appearance and adds the instruction to go and tell the Apostles, just as is recorded in Luke 24:10 along with other women.

A point to consider and help you deepen your appreciation of her importance:  For ancient patriarchal cultures, women were generally not considered credible witnesses. (See the story f Susanna in the book of Daniel.)  The fact that all four Gospels place a woman (Mary Magdalene) at the center of the resurrection narrative points to the historical reliability of the event and her presence, because early writers could not simply invent this detail if they wanted to convince a skeptical, male-dominated society that the Resurrection occurred.

Her Life in the Early Church
She appears in apocryphal writings to have had a role in preaching, and her end is described one way in the Eastern Tradition and another way in the Western Tradition.  In the East, it is said she went to Ephesus with St. John the Evangelist and there she died and is buried.  However, the Western Church believes she and others were set adrift on a rudderless raft from the Holy Land, and the Lord provided that this raft would make it to France, to the shores of the area now known as Provence.  There, at a place called La Sainte-Baume Massif, in a cave, Mary lived out the last 30 years of her life.  Then her remains in a crypt were not discovered until 1279, and to this day, those same remains reside in a 13th Century basilica in the town of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume,  To this day, these two sites remain a place of pilgrimage, and the Dominicans serve there and welcome pilgrims.  Their order claims St. Mary Magdalen as co-Patroness of the order, for she was the preacher to the Apostles.

These details about St. Mary Magdalen appear in Dominican friar Bl. Jacobus de Voragine’s work on the lives of the Saints from the 13th Century, in the part called the Golden Legend of St. Mary Magdalen which tells of her receiving Communion and then passing peacefully away.

Her Presence in the Liturgical Calendar
Until 2016, St. Mary Magdalene simply had an obligatory memorial, always celebrated on July 22nd.  We can appreciate the strength of her influence on others through the years and how she was understood by looking to the great Carmelite reformer, St. Teresa of Avila.  As St. Teresa confronted her own unworthiness during her conversion, she mediated on the tears of St. Mary Magdalene (Jn. 20:11, when she could not find His Body - reference the image on this post) to steady her soul.  (In the Mass readings for tomorrow, her feast day we see Song of Songs 3, that searching for the Lord that St. Teresa also references.  Additionally, 2 Cor 5:14-17 may be read which encourages us to go beyond the tangible.) As she progressed along the journey of the interior life, and wrote her work The Way of Perfection, St. Teresa observed that St. Mary Magdalen is the best example of a soul overwhelmed by Christ’s love and remaining completely surrendered to it.  Outside of St. Teresa’s own writings, her spiritual director, Fr. Diego de Yepes said Teresa once experienced an intense rapture where she envied the Magdalene for the physical time she spent at Jesus' feet. Christ reportedly appeared and comforted Teresa, telling her, "While I was on earth, I took her for my friend; but now that I am in heaven, I have chosen you."  

In 2016, the Jubilee of Mercy, on June 3rd, Pope Francis elevated St. Mary Magalen’s memorial to a full feast for three reasons:

She was given the task of telling the Apostles Jesus had risen, which is the core message of Christianity (See St. Thomas Aquinas giving her the title Apostolorum Apostola and St. John Paul 2 Mulieris dignitatem, n. 16)
Her role highlights the prominent position and spiritual significance of women in the Early Church
Her life shows the result of God’s transformative Mercy whereby no past remains outside His capacity to redeem it.

Therefore, let us join our hearts in prayer:

Dearest St. Mary Magdalen
Exhort us by your tears to learn to look for Jesus 
In all the eyes and faces around us
Through sadness and 
Seeming hopelessness.
Help us to learn, as you did
In that garden, to hold to Faith
And not tangible senses
Casting ourselves in trust at His feet
As you did, may we come to be
Counted as a friend to Him.
May we bring the Good News to all
By living lives centered around
His Eucharistic feast
Proclaiming His Resurrection
Until we, too, pass away
Into His Eternal Embrace.
Amen

 

Image:  Konstantinos Tzanes, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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