Homily for the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene

Homily for the Feast of
St. Mary Magdelene 

 
July 22, 2020
Songs 3: 1-4 

John 20: 1-2, 11-18

Ursulines, Willow Dr., New Rochelle, N.Y.

“I sought him whom my heart loves” (Songs 3: 1).

Risen Jesus appears to Mary (by Ivanov)

The little bit that we really know about Mary of Magdala offers us 2 lessons.  The 1st is her seeking Jesus and following him; the 2d is her announcing the Good News, “I have seen the Lord, and he is alive” (cf. John 20:18).

Since the early Middle Ages a mythology has developed around Mary, caused by a false conflation of 3 women who appear in the gospels:  the real Mary, Mary of Bethany (the sister of Martha and Lazarus), and the unnamed sinful woman who fell at Jesus’ feet, anointed them, and dried them with her hair.

According to St. Luke (8:2), 7 demons had gone out of the real Mary, presumably cast out by Jesus; today’s Liturgy of the Hours says explicitly that he did it, however the exorcism is to be interpreted.  Then Mary became one of the Galilean women who followed Jesus along with the 12 and “provided for them out of their resources” (8:3), suggesting that she was a woman of means.

Legends around Mary send her to Ephesus with the Virgin Mary or turn her into a penitent apostle who went with her supposed brother Lazarus and sister Martha to Gaul.

The Mary of the gospels not only followed Jesus but also stayed with him all the way to Golgotha, as all the gospels attest, Luke by implication and the other 3 evangelists by name.  From Golgothat, the 4 gospels agree (Luke by implication, again), she continued to seek him whom her heart loved, coming to the tomb early on Sunday morning with several friends to complete, lovingly, the burial rites for her beloved.

When she finally recognizes her risen Lord, she clings to him.  Most English translations are rather tame, in my opinion:  “Stop holding on to me” (John 20:17); the Vulgate reads, “Noli me tangere.”  I think the Jerusalem Bible’s “cling” is more emphatic, and the Postcommunion prayer goes with that, as well.  Be that as it may, we see the bond of love between Mary and Jesus her Lord.  That’s a model for us as disciples:  to seek the Lord always, to follow him wherever he goes, even to the cross, and to hold him tight and close when we’re with him.

Jesus concludes his meeting with Mary with his commission that she should announce his resurrection.  She becomes the “apostle to the apostles,” in the words of Rabanus Maurus and Thomas Aquinas, the bearer of the Good News to the frightened and skeptical, to Peter and the beloved disciple who have seen the empty tomb but not yet grasped its meaning.  The Lord is risen!  Death is defeated.  All his words of forgiveness and salvation are true.

That’s our commission too—to continue in Mary Magdalene’s footsteps, announcing to everyone that we’ve met Jesus and love him and find salvation in him.  “Thru her intercession and example, may we proclaim the living Christ and come to see him reigning in [the Father’s] glory” (Collect).