But go to my brothers and tell them,
‘I am going to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.’”
Mary went and announced to the disciples,
“I have seen the Lord,”
and then reported what he had told her.
Friar Stephen McMichael, OFM Conv., in his book, Mary Magdalene: In Medieval Franciscan Spirituality, Beloved Disciple and Apostle of the Apostles, remembers how Mary Magdalene was greatly revered by the Church during the middle ages. Among all women she was second only to the Virgin Mother of God.
In paintings and frescoes, and in songs, poems, and prayers, she stood with Mary on Calvary and greeted him at his resurrection. If he had appeared to his own mother immediately upon rising from the dead, the Virgin told him to return to the site and console the bereft woman who could not tear herself away from his tomb. She is the Mary we hear about in the Easter Canticle; we ask her to. "Tell us what you have seen."
Predictably, today's feminists accuse the Church of degrading the woman as a prostitute sinner. The musical Jesus Christ Superstar (which did not represent any church) incredibly suggested the Lord was sleeping in her bed as she sang, "I don't know how to love him." Neither the lyricist Tim Rice nor feminists recognized her penance; they dismiss that entire dimension of the faith. Posing as victims, they feel no need to repent.
But without penance caricatures of the Galilean and the Magdalene are meaningless; good for nothing but mass entertainment and cheap profits. They cannot begin to comprehend the deep knowledge and colorful imagination of Christendom. Nor can they receive reassurance, joy, or freedom.
Even in the Middle Ages, Friar McMichael writes, Mary Magdalene was recognized as "the apostle to the apostles." If not the first to see the Risen Lord, she was the first disciple sent with the Easter Message to the men who were hiding in the Upper Room. Pope Francis formally recognized that title and gave her a feast day apart from Mary, Martha, and Lazarus of Bethany.
The medieval artists recalled the four most significant incidents in the Penitent's life: her bathing the feet of Jesus with her tears and wiping them with her hair in the house of Simon the Pharisee; her presence at the tomb when Lazarus stumbled out of the tomb; her presence on Calvary as recorded by all four Gospels; the Lord's appearance to her on Easter; and her mission: "Go to my brothers and tell them...." They also recalled a non-biblical story of her life and healing ministry in Marseilles, France.
These four incidents are the story of faith for every Christian. We too must repent of our sins even as we experience grief and remorse for what we have done. We must see His wisdom and authority. We must experience the new hope of His Life within us. And we must announce the Gospel to others.
In this 21st century we need to hear the true story of Mary Magdalene, and recognize our duty to live as the Lord's disciples. We have heard the complaint of feminists, and recognized our sins against women, including some that seem systemic. But we will not forget the mercy the Lord showed to her and to us as he calls us from the grave of our sinful lives into the freedom of God's children.
