Mary Magdalene
One
The Apostle to the Apostles
John chapter 20 tells us Mary Magdalene was the first person Jesus appeared to after the Resurrection. Jesus said to her, “Go and find the brothers and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” So, Mary went and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her.
To be an Apostle means to be sent. Mary becomes the Apostle to the Apostles because Jesus sends her to proclaim the Resurrection to them!
In 2016 Pope Francis elevated the celebration of Mary Magdalene from a memorial to a feast like we celebrate for the Apostles to highlight her crucial role as a witness to the Resurrection of Jesus and as a model of evangelization for all Christians.
Two
Apostle to France
In 42 AD, about nine years after the death and Resurrection of Jesus, King Herod began to violently persecute the Christians in Jerusalem. He had the Apostle James the Greater put to death by the sword and Peter was placed in prison, from which angels set him free and then he fled the country, probably to Rome.
It was then that Herod arrested some of Jesus’ closest friends: Mary Magdalene, Martha, Lazarus, Maximin, and others.
Not wanting to create more so-called martyrs, Herod decided to exile them. So, they were placed in a boat with no sail, oars, or rudder and cast off into the sea so that they would die a horrible death of starvation. Through divine intervention, their boat drifted until they finally landed in Southern France at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer just west of what is today Marseille, France.
They travelled to Marseille where she shared with everyone the Good News of the Resurrection of Jesus and they firmly established the Catholic Faith in France.
Three
We must be witnesses of the Resurrection
The number one reason Catholics give for not evangelizing is the false idea that “it’s not my job.” That’s the job of the trained professionals, the bishop, priests and religious or at least the parish workers.
That would have never entered the mind of Mary Magdalene. She had experienced the power of Jesus in her own life, he had set her free from many demons, she had a deep friendship with Jesus and the freedom and joy and purpose Jesus gave to her life led her to want that good for others. So she told them about Jesus and the Resurrection and Heaven.
Why are we so timid? Probably because we have tried to tell people about Jesus, especially people in our own families, and they have rejected us and then it strained the relationship. And now we are gun shy, timid. I understand. I have experienced it myself.
So, what do we do?
Four
Imitate Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene had a simple two-step approach to evangelization that we can all imitate. First, she spent time with Jesus in friendship. She did this while He walked on earth. She spent time with Him, talking to Him, listening to Him and just being with Him in silence. Then after the Resurrection, she continued to do the same thing, she continued a deep friendship with Jesus in prayer, talking to Him from the heart, listening to Him in the silence of her heart and just being with Him.
That’s the first step of evangelization: the commitment to friendship with Jesus in prayer every day. You're doing that right now in the Rosary and Jesus is probably inviting you to take another step and spend more time with him by daily Mass or adoration or the prayerful reading of Scripture.
Then, when she was in conversations with people, if an opportunity arose, she would tell them about her experience with Jesus. Some believed her and became friends of Jesus themselves. Some rejected her. That’s the way it goes.
We can do the same. We commit to daily prayer, then we enter into conversations with people and we test the water. If the person we are talking with is open we dive in. If they are not, we don’t push Jesus on them, we turn to a different topic until a better time arises.
Prayer, willingness to talk about Jesus, and detachment to the outcome, that’s the recipe I think.
Five
I can be timid – gun shy
Something happened to my back on the way from Poland to Medjugorje on June 21st and it has been a wreck ever since. I went to a great doctor who asked, “When did this start?” I said when I was in Bosnia-Herzegovina and then I tried to explain the symptoms. He stopped me. “Wait, why were you in Bosnia?” he said. I thought, I know this guy, he’s a complete non-religious secular doctor. So I tried to skirt the reason. I simply said I was going to a little village called Medjugorje and then went on with my symptoms. He stopped me again, “Why did you go to Medjugorje?” And he kept pressing, so I just launched. I told him that Mary the Mother of Jesus has been reported to be appearing to six visionaries there for 43 years and I went to check it out. Then on with my symptoms. He stopped me again and asked, “What did she do and say?” I was so surprised. But I just told him that the world has forgotten God and is on the brink of destroying itself with war and destroying the family and She came to call us back to God by prayer, repentance, and conversion through the sacrament of Confession and for a love for Jesus in the Eucharist. That is the only path to personal peace, peace in the family, and peace in the world.
I could tell he was visibly moved.
I then said, “I didn’t expect you to ask.” He said, “I didn’t expect a patient to show up today and tell me the Mother of Jesus is appearing.” Then he said, “Thank you. I never get to have spiritual conversations.”
Pray, when the opportunity arises share Jesus with others, and be detached. It’s not our job to convert people. But it is our job to share when God gives us the opportunity.