Dear brothers and sisters, today we gather to celebrate the feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, a woman who has been misunderstood and marginalized throughout the centuries. Her story is one of redemption, of forgiveness, and of the transformative power of love.
As we read the gospel account of her encounter with the Risen Christ, we are reminded that Mary Magdalene was a woman who had known sorrow and heartache. She had been possessed by seven demons, and her life was marked by shame and despair. But it was in her darkest hour that she encountered our Lord, and it was through her encounter with Him that she experienced transformation.
As Saint Paul wrote in our second reading, "He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." For Mary Magdalene, this meant leaving behind her past and embracing a new identity as a follower of Jesus. In the earliest traditions, and from a very careful consideration of the biblical texts, we can safely hold that Mary Magdalene anointed our Lord twice, once at her conversion, in the beginning of his public ministry, and then three years later, two days before his crucifixion on Good Friday. The difference in details in both these anointings are emblematic of the beautiful spiritual journey she had made, and how marvellously united to the Lord she had become as a close follower and witness to all he had done while he was with us. In the first anointing, as if estranged from God and a newcomer to the sacred, she cannot look Jesus in the eye. Shame and oppression have tyrannized her soul, and so she falls from behind him, we are told, and washes his feet with her tears. In the second anointing, three years later, she is standing, secure in her friendship and loyalty to the Lord, and she anoints his head. This time she is looking him in the eyes.
She is no longer estranged, but a friend. This is us. This needs to be our own journey. From estranged, to servants, to friends. “I no longer call you servants,” said our Lord to the apostles, “but friends, for the servant does not know what the master does.” This is the gradual spiritual and anthropomorphic journey all of us must undertake so as to arrive at friendship, and close union with Christ. Our prayer is that he will never say to us, when we finally arrive before him, “I do not know you.” We desire and strive to be in his inner circle as Saint Mary Magdalene and the Apostles were. In the eyes of the world, Mary Magdalene was just a woman from Magdala, a city in Galilee. But to Jesus, she was someone who had been loved, forgiven, and redeemed. And it was this love that transformed her life. This in and of itself is a lesson to us. If we wish that someone changes for the better, we must love them, show them mercy, and give them space to freely come to the knowledge and vicinity of God. We cannot push them, or force them. Be careful of forcing your children to go to Mass, for example, while neglecting to sit with them and catechise them so that they can understand its beauty. We need to be careful that we are loving people towards God, rather than imposing our own love for him, on them.
Make rules, keep them, but explain their importance to your children so that they understand what your insistence is all about. Otherwise, they won’t get it, and they’ll never follow suit. For them to follow Christ, they need to be touched by his grace, and by his love and mercy and if only we can try to be conduits of that grace through the example of the manner of our daily living. Mary Magdalene didn’t have to preach much because the way she lived after being touched by Christ was such a powerful witness in and of itself.
As we reflect on Mary Magdalene's story, we are reminded that we too have been given this same gift of love and redemption, the spirit of which we are called to mercifully extend to others. We too have been called to leave behind our old selves and to live in union with Him who died for us.
In France, where Mary Magdalene's relics are venerated, there is a beautiful tradition surrounding her life. According to legend, after Jesus' resurrection, Mary Magdalene left Jerusalem with her sister Martha and brother Lazarus to spread the Good News to the world. They arrived in France, where they founded a community of believers and lived out their lives as witnesses to the Risen Christ. It is unclear how they ended up with France, but part of that tradition states that many of the earliest Hebrew converts to Christianity were exiled on boats, just thrown out at sea, by their fellow countrymen who preferred to do that rather than kill their own people, and so the boats took whatever course the weather and sea conditions of those days would dictate. Mary, Martha and Lazarus would end up at the ports of France.
But what does this mean for us today? It means that we must be willing to leave behind our old selves and to take up a new identity as followers of Jesus wherever that identity may lead us. It means that we must be willing to forgive ourselves and others, just as God has forgiven us, but to always place our trust in Jesus. And it means that we must be willing to share our faith with others, just as Mary Magdalene did, wherever our circumstances bring us.
As we celebrate the feast of Saint Mary Magdalene today, let us remember her story and be inspired by her gradual progression from a person estranged to the things of God, to one of his closest followers, friends and children. Let us remember that we too have been given the gift of transformation through Jesus Christ so as to draw close to the things of God. And let us strive to live out our lives as witnesses to His love, just as Mary Magdalene did, especially after she witnessed Christ risen from the dead.
May we be blessed by her intercession today and always and may we also have the special grace to come to know the joy of the loving God above all other things. Amen.
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