Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene

When it comes to Holy Scripture there are some people that we know a great deal about.  Moses, for example, comes to mind as someone mentioned quite often in the Bible.  St. Paul is another person that has many epistles/letters attributed to him in the New Testament.  Thus, we know a good deal about St. Paul from his own writing.  Obviously, a goodly portion of the Acts of the Apostles is about St. Paul.  On the proverbial "other end of the spectrum," there are others that were very important and yet we do not know very much about them.  St. Joseph comes to mind.   And also Mary Magdalene is another important person associated with Our Lord and yet we do not know that much about her from Holy Scripture.  There are less than twenty verses in the Bible which mention Mary Magdalene.  Yet we know that Mary Magdalene was important to Our Lord and the early Apostles and Disciples.

1)  The Seven Devils

It is commonly believed by many people that Mary Magdalene was a former prostitute.  But despite this widely-held belief, it is never mentioned in Scripture that Mary Magdalene was a penitent prostitute at one time or another in her lifetime.  While it does not say in the Bible that Mary was a prostitute at one time or another, it does say that Mary did have a miraculous recovery.  Let us look at St. Luke 8:2:  "And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom when seven devils."  What can we learn from this verse?  Well, for one, we learn that she was "called Magdalene . . ."   Remember that Magdala was a place.   It was near Tiberias, on the the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.  Thus, more than likely the name "Magdalene" was really a nickname, if you will, for where she was from.  Similar to how we would call someone from Ohio a "Buckeye."  Or we would call someone from Indiana a "Hoosier."  The second thing that we learn from the verse cited above is that Mary had been miraculously cured of "seven devils."  Now, again, when the term "seven devils" is used, it could be an analogy for sicknesses or illnesses.  She could have been cured of seven different illnesses.  Or the number "seven" could have signified something very important or dramatic.  In either case, nowhere does it say that Mary Magdalene was a former prostitute.  What we can learn, though from this is that each one of us has our own "devils" that we deal with in our lives.  Each one of is more than likely targeted by devils and we have to deal with them.  Certainly, without a doubt, once you become a "Child of God," once you become a "Son or Daughter of God," you become "Public Enemy Number One" to Satan.  Once he sees the love of God growing more and more in your heart, he will certainly send devils to plague you and torment you.  Mary Magdalene had seven devils.  How many do you have?  How many do I have?  The number is not important.  What is important that each one of us is not immune from attacks by the devil.  Each one of us needs the healing touch of Our Blessed Saviour to bring us back to fullness of health:  physically, spiritually and emotionally.

2)  Near The Cross

When you think of all the people whose lives were touched by Our Blessed Lord, it is an absolute travesty that there were so few with Him when He was crucified.  Think about all the people that were healed by Our Lord.  Think about the people that were inspired by His words as He taught and preached.  Think about the people that were touched by Our Blessed Saviour and their lives changed forever.  And yet look at how few people were there at the Hill of Calvary on that dreadful day.  It is obvious that many people were fearful and afraid.  It is apparent that those closest to Our Blessed Lord were afraid for their very lives.  Look at St. Peter.  Our Lord foretold that St. Peter would deny Him and St. Peter did not believe Him.  And yet look who was correct.  St. Peter denied Our Lord not once . . .  not twice  . . .  but three times.  We all know this. There were some faithful souls that remained close to Our Lord in His hour of agony.  "Now there stod by the Cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene."  Mary Magdalene was one of the few that stayed faithful to the end.  This is what faith is all about.  When things look the darkest, how many of us give up?  When things look like they could not get any worse, how many of us give into despair?  How many of us just throw our hands up ready to surrender.  Now, I am not saying that Mary Magdalene and those who were there on that fateful day were not scared.  I am sure that they were very fearful.  I am sure they were confused.  I am sure they were emotional.  We could say a hundred things.  And yet no matter what they were, they were also faithful.  They were faithful to Christ.  They did not know what would happen next and yet they stayed close to the Cross.  In our own situations, we become fearful.  In the drama that we call life, we become confused.  And yet whatever befalls us in life, let us always remain close to the Cross.  Let us always remember that Our Blessed Saviour carried His Cross and that we should carry our own crosses as well.  Our "crosses" are what we have to carry on a daily basis:  money woes . . . .  sickness . . . . perhaps drug or alcohol problems . . . . loved ones who seem bent on self-destruction . . . . Each one of us can come up with our own "cross" that we carry.  Let us be inspired by Mary Magdalene.  Let us remain faithful to God, yes, in the good times but still remain faithful to God when the bad times come as well.  It's easy to be a cheerful Christian when we've got life good.  But how easy is it to be a cheerful Christian when the world is attacking us?

3)  "Woman, why weepest thou?"

In the Twentieth Chapter of St. John's Gospel, we hear a very interesting story about Mary Magdalene.  St. John tells us in this chapter that Our Blessed Lord had already been taken down from the Cross and had been laid in the tomb.  Now bear in mind from what we said above about Mary Magdalene, she not only remained faithful to the end, she remained still faithful once Our Lord had been laid in the tomb.  St John, in his Gospel, tells us that Mary Magdalene had come "to the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre." (St. John 20:1)  At that point she ran and told St. Peter.  But this is not the interesting part yet, in my opinion.  If we move further down in this chapter we will soon find beginning in verse Fourteen:  "   . . . . she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.  Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?  whom seekest thou?  She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.  Jesus saith unto her, Mary.  She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master." (St. John 20:14-16)   How many times has God appeared to us and we did not recognize Him?  How many times has God spoken to each one of us and we did not hear Him?  Did we not recognize Him because we were too busy seeking after  worldly goods?  Did we not hear God because we were too busy listening to others?  Or perhaps we only listen to God when He says what we want Him to say.  Other than that, we don't hear God.  In our children we call that "selective hearing."  Do any of us have "selective hearing" when it comes to God speaking to us.  Do we only recognize God when He "fits" our description of what He should look like?  Our Blessed Lord speaks to us at various times.  Our Saviour appears to us at various points in our life.  Let us always remain faithful to God so that we will always recognize Him.  Let us learn from the example of Mary Magdalene and always stay close to God, even to the very end.