Today we celebrate Saint Mary Magdalene. The Gospel accounts are harmonious in their nature, but they often tell stories differently. Mary’s presence at the empty tomb when dawn broke on the Third Day stands out as one of the few things that they state in complete uniformity. Mary was more than just in the right place at the right time. Among the many people that followed Jesus, she was the most loyal, steadfast, and courageous.
Something happened to Mary that changed her existence. Luke’s Gospel account tells us that Jesus went through cities and villages preaching the Good News of God’s Kingdom. In toe were the twelve disciples and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and illnesses. Jesus healed Mary, called Magdalene, of seven demons! From this point onward she followed Jesus.
She followed Jesus, she ministered to him, she stuck by him in terrible times, and she watched in horror when Jesus was crucified on a tree at Calvary. If her life were not difficult enough overcoming demons with God’s help, it became even more grief stricken watching her Lord die. In John’s Gospel account we will remember that Mary and her sister Martha had also watched their brother Lazarus die. The sisters wept along with Jesus who eventually raised their brother from the grave. Not long after calling a man out of a tomb, Jesus was the one laid within his own hewn out cavern.
Even in the face of another death to another beloved brother, Mary remained loyal and steadfast. I believe she knew no other way of being. And so, after the tragic events of Friday afternoon she marched through her grief-induced fog and made her way to where Jesus lay dead. With her she carried spices and oil to take care of his body, as was the tradition of their people.
According to John, when she arrived two angels greeted Mary, but not seeing her Lord’s body she barely noticed them. She spoke, “They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Spinning around she saw a man she knew so well, but her heartache camouflaged his appearance, such that she could not see him. Mary began to cry, like Jesus and she had done when Lazarus died. The man asked why she was weeping and for whom she was looking. Mary assumed this man was a gardener, but then the surprise of all surprises occurred. The gardener spoke her name. “Mary,” he said. Immediately the scales fell from her eyes and she saw her Lord, her Savior, her Jesus.
If being healed of seven demons changes one’s life, what does being the first human to meet the Risen Christ do?
If being the first witness of an enchanting snow, a powerful sea’s nightly work, or a precious sunrise connect us to that which both transcends us and lies at the core of who we are, how profound must it have been to be the first one on the scene of God’s greatest miracle?
We celebrate Saint Mary Magdalene today. Her loyalty, steadfastness, and courage inspire us, and in this time we need inspiration. In the face of grief-inducing, outrageous, and asinine events throughout our world we would do well to be like Mary. Even when things appear dire and all but damned we are called to continue on in Faith walking even to the scenes of persecution and death, not looking away even when something horrible transpires, but instead being witnesses and bearers of the Good News.
Mary was a witness both to Good Friday and Easter morning. There is not one without the other. This day and time in our world may feel like it is Good Friday, and we are called to walk with Mary through fear, doubt, and death for our Risen Lord yearns for us to tell of the Truth that life overcomes death, that brightness will make aware what is hidden, and God will raise up that which has been cast down.
Today and always, let us be as loyal, steadfast, and courageous as Mary. God help us to share the Good News even when it scares us. And may we be witnesses of your Resurrection now and forever more.
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