On 22 July, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of St Mary Magdalene, one of the most important and prominent women in the Gospels. On June 10, 2016, the liturgical celebration honouring St Mary Magdalene was raised from a memorial to a feast, putting her on par with the Apostles.
Archbishop Arthur Roche, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, in the letter announcing the change, said the decision means “one should reflect more deeply on the dignity of women, the New Evangelisation, and the greatness of the mystery of Divine Mercy”.
Mary was the first recorded witness to the resurrection of Jesus, his most ardent and loving follower. She had stood with Mary at the foot of the Cross on that brutal Good Friday afternoon and had been by the side of Mary during these difficult hours. On Easter morning, Jesus appeared to her in the garden by the tomb. Mary had been weeping bitterly over the death of Jesus, yet he appears as a gardener; he speaks her name and in hearing it spoken she recognises him. In response she cries, ‘Rabbuni!’ (John 20:16-18).
It was she who brought the news of the Resurrection to the Apostles, and Peter and John raced to the tomb to see what had happened. St Thomas Aquinas referred to Mary Magdalene as the “Apostle to the apostles” because she was the first person to announce the good news of Christ’s resurrection.
Christian Bergmann, a staff writer for Melbourne Catholic, reflects on this further: “In Mulieris Dignitatem, Pope John Paul II said that this scene in the Gospels is what ‘crowns’ every other interaction between Jesus and the women around him: he trusts her as a witness, trusts her to give testimony, and trusts her with ‘divine truths’ (§16). Even though it is not stated explicitly, there is something scandalous going on here: in the ancient world, even in Jewish law, women were not always seen to be reliable witnesses in a court of law. Their testimony was an inherently compromised one. What Jesus does here is entrust a woman, as a disciple, with bearing witness and testimony to him. It is a remarkable and moving moment in the Gospels”.
Author and artist, Jan Richardson has written the following blessing in her honour. “As we celebrate the Magdalene’s feast day, I offer this blessing to you. Wherever you are, whatever threshold you are on or are approaching, may courage and grace attend you…”
The Magdalene’s Blessing
You hardly imagined
standing here,
everything you ever loved
suddenly returned to you,
looking you in the eye
and calling your name.
And now
you do not know
how to abide this ache
in the centre
of your chest,
where a door
slams shut
and swings open
at the same time,
turning on the hinge
of your aching
and hopeful heart.
I tell you,
this is not a banishment
from the garden.
This is an invitation,
a choice,
a threshold,
a gate.
This is your life
calling to you
from a place
you could never
have dreamed,
but now that you
have glimpsed its edge,
you cannot imagine
choosing any other way.
So let the tears come
as anointing,
as consecration,
and then
let them go.
Let this blessing
gather itself around you.
Let it give you
what you will need
for this journey.
You will not remember
the words—
they do not matter.
All you need to remember
is how it sounded
when you stood
in the place of death
and heard the living
call your name.”
St Mary Magdalene, pray for us!
Read a most fascinating presentation ‘All the Marys’ by Diana Butler Bass.