Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

Today is the commemoration of Saint Mary Magdalene.

If you’ve read any books about Mary Magdalene, or possibly just Googled her, you will quickly see that she is wildly popular, the subject of endless debate and ideological drama, with contributors as widely divergent as a fourth-century pope, a vociferous contemporary ex priest, academics, and the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Dan Rice and Dan Brown.

The modern conversation is quite a mess, really, but one needn’t get bogged down in all that to appreciate how stunningly important Mary Magdalene is in our tradition. To begin with, Luke’s gospel, and subsequent tradition does describe her as a sort of penitent, insofar as Jesus cast seven demons from her and completely changed her life. Whatever else one might say about this, going from multiple demonic possession to complete healing, to discipleship with Jesus, to observing his bloody death, to being the first to meet the risen Christ, to being the first to preach his resurrection to the disciples: all of this may be the most potent story of transformation, even of conversion that I have ever heard. Indeed, her meeting with Jesus in the garden seems emblematic of Christian spirituality as a whole, a potent icon of resurrection power, of God’s desire to restore the whole creation, and of his particular love for individual creatures. No wonder Mary Magdalene is referred to as ‘Equal of the Apostles’ and ‘Apostle to the Apostles’.

I am tremendously inspired by this holy woman, not simply because she was rescued from her ‘wicked’ background, but because her struggle and discipleship is a beautiful, heart-rending story of utter transfiguration by our Lord. We can all aspire to be as faithful, as daring, as uncompromising as she became in her love for Christ.

Yours in Christ,
Justin

 Lessons for Mary Magdalene:
AM: Psalm 116; Zephaniah 3:14-20; Mark 15:14-20
PM: Psalm 30, 149; Exodus 15:19-21; 2 Corinthians 1:3-7