Memorial of Saint Mary Magdalene
(John 20:1-2;11-18)
Our secular age pictures Mary Magdalene as a reformed prostitute who becomes Jesus’ girlfriend. The novel The Da Vinci Code even sees her as the mother of Jesus’ child! Christians should be appalled by such ideas. There is no evidence in the gospels to support them. More to the point, they undermine Christian virtue and overlook the Church’s evangelical mission.
Jesus dedicated himself to God, his Father. His virginity did not make him any less human. Indeed, it has signaled to humans the possibility of self-transcendence. Striving to imitate Jesus’ purity of heart, we will not fall victims to our passions. Rather, we will come to love God above all and to love those whom God has given us, each in the appropriate way.
As we hear in the gospel today, Jesus sent Mary Magdalene on a mission. He told her to announce to his disciples that he was ascending to God, not only his Father but theirs as well. Carrying out this responsibility, Mary Magdalene cued the whole Church. We too are to announce God’s love. We can make such a jubilant claim not because we have seen the risen Christ, but because God has blessed our lives abundantly in him.
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