1 For the Feast of St. Mary of Magdala Reflection by: Sr. Barbara Fiand July 21, 2017 What a great pleasure it is for me to be here with all of you on the Vigil of the feast of Mary of Magdala beloved disciple and friend of Jesus. It is for me as a Christian woman always an occasion of great joy to remember and honor a woman follower of Jesus. The occasion for this is indeed rare in the Christian tradition, as we all know. There is, of course, Mary, the mother of Jesus with a number of feasts in her name ----- but even in the case of Mary, one does wonder, really, how much WOMEN were truly involved in identifying what made her holy in other words, in pointing out her characteristics for admiration let alone for imitation: You see, VIRGIN MOTHERHOOD (biologically understood) is indeed, as well know, somewhat difficult to imitate. Her FIAT too the totally surrendered YES to the angel when she was told that God had chosen her to be the mother of his Son This FIAT, which all of us were exhorted to follow ever since, actually also needs some serious reflection
2 and sincere probing if we want to move it from a sort of military following of orders to the true discernment that it must have been. I do believe, to tell you the truth, that in the case of Mary, her motherhood even if mentioned often was really over-shadowed quite frequently throughout history, in favor of her virginity. And I do wonder why..... You know, for years, when I was younger and had more energy, I would make my own Christmas cards. I would take a photograph of a particularly beautiful picture of Mother with Child and paste it on a card. Inside the card I would always print the same inscription one that I had first seen on Cards by Lucy a Humility of Mary Sister, I believe, who has since retired. The inscription read: AND WOMAN SAID: THIS IS MY BODY; THIS IS MY BLOOD. It was for me somehow a gentle but quite clear reminder of the motherhood of Mary that marks her priesthood as well. But what does all of this have to do with Mary Magdalene? After all we do not send cards to celebrate her feast. (Perhaps we should!!) Nevertheless, she too in what she was asked (COMMISSIONED, really by Jesus) to do - speaks to us powerfully. She speaks to us of women s role in the church, a role they, through their representatives, are asked to play for the sake of the mission - in ministry toward God s Reign. -- A role that was given to them unequivocally by Jesus for the sake of his Body
3 A role staring us in the face If we would just look and allow ourselves see! Mary Magdalene (and all those who read the scriptures know this even if many Paul included choose to ignore it [see 1 Cor. 15: 5-8]) - Mary Magdalene, not Peter and the twelve, was the first to have seen Jesus and to be asked to proclaim the Good News the Gospel of the Resurrection. What I am saying is simply another way of suggesting that she was the first, after the resurrection, to be commissioned by Jesus himself to make known that God s reign was upon us (not waiting for us when we die, but truly upon us here and now) and that we were to enter into its truth now and live by its mandates. What I am pointing to here and it is right there in the Holy Word, for our acknowledgement and acceptance - is the reality of two women (Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary of Magdala) mandated by the Spirit and by Jesus himself to stand symbolically for our liturgy of Word and Sacrament. Interesting also, while we are on this topic, is what we are told in Acts 1:21-22. Namely, that after the betrayal and death of Judas the disciples gathered to find a replacement for him. Now, in order to do this, they decided that they needed to stipulate the requirements for Apostle-ship. They identified three: 1. An apostle first needed to have been a follower of Jesus during his public
4 ministry, 2. An apostle needed to have been a witness to his resurrection, 3. And third, an apostle needed to have subsequently been mandated to go and proclaim it. It seems clear to everyone who truly wants to see, that Mary Magdalene has a stellar record here, a record that in fact, I would suggest, outshines that of Paul. She was not only an Apostle but, as St Bernard of Clairvaux and others with him have called her, the Apostle of Apostles. We can draw our own conclusions here about God s will, concerning the precendented or unprecedented priesthood of women, and concerning apostolic succession: what it really might mean and how important it is, why, as in the case of Mary of Magdala, it was ignored, and why, so often in subsequent tradition, she was in fact vilified instead as a sinner, a prostitute, and one possessed by the devil. It is always difficult to make observations such as these and to open questions in this area. One of the reasons women were denied graduate studies in theology for so long, was very likely so that they would not come to ask these questions. They would not have the knowledge to do so. Today, and for many years now, the discipleship of equals that Jesus called for at the last supper (and many times before that, actually) and that he saw as a mark of God s Reign, has not been experienced by many of us.
5 It defies my understanding, you know, why Matthew 20: 25-28 ( The rulers of the gentiles lord it over them and their great ones make their authority felt. It cannot be like that with you. ) why this passage and others like it has been and continues to be so consistently ignored. Why with oaths of allegiance and threats of excommunications we actually act as if He had given us an option. There was no choice here, my friends, for those who stand for God s Reign!!!! One thinks these thoughts, of course, but usually does not speak them, even though they are there, right THERE, in Holy Scripture, more clearly than many other things that are claimed in its name. I offer them here, at your invitation, to celebrate a foremost leader in Christianity, a disciple, an apostle, and a woman. May she be remembered for her great courage and for her love, and may that love and courage inspire us to proclaim the resurrection as our truth also, for that event brought with it the promise of our resurrection as well. Mary Magdalene s message to the disciples hiding in Jerusalem then, was not just -- not to be afraid and to go back home to Galilee. It was in fact a challenge: that they take hold once again of the covenant they had committed
6 themselves to as followers of Jesus. This, after all, had been the momentous message of the Passover meal Jesus had celebrated with them shortly before he was arrested when they, like all good Jews, had shared a common loaf and common cup to remember their togetherness with Yahweh who had liberated them out of Egypt. Jesus had told them at that meal, however, that their work throughout his years of ministry with them was mandating a new oneness with Yahweh a commitment to God s Reign in the here and now a discipleship of equals, where all would be honored and respected, and all would experience God s love and goodness. The message Mary of Magdala had from the Risen One for his disciples was that the resurrection had ushered in this Reign, that it was upon them, and that, in fact death had lost its power had been shown powerless in the face of God s Reign. The message Jesus proclaimed was indestructible. (They thought they could do away with him but he was back.) Mary was to tell the disciples: that Jesus was ahead of them, not behind them; that he was returning them to their primary place of ministry Galilee, that the work they had started before his crucifixion was to continue in them and through them. that the resurrection energy was creating a new world of justice and love
7 for which he had lived and died, and for which they would now be responsible. Mary s message, my friends, was for them and is for us today. It is a message of transformation and new life for all people of good will, a message that has us commit ourselves in the here and now to the God s Reign. We live this promise today in the power of the resurrection, and our integrity demands a clinging not to what was done in past ages even sometimes by those who in his name forgot the message. We are not to hold on to what we have always done, calling it holy by that fact, but to cling to the new life that is ever the fruit of the resurrection HIS and ours in his name. This, I believe, and this is what we celebrate in remembering Mary of Magdala today. Amen