St. Mary Magdalene
One
Mary Magdalene
There are strong reasons to believe Mary Magdalene was the same Mary as the sister of Martha and Lazarus. Church Fathers such as Augustine, Jerome, John Chrysostom, and Gregory the Great say the sister of Martha and Lazarus is Mary Magdalene from whom Jesus drove out seven demons.
Second, there is an ancient tradition that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were from a wealthy family. Their father was a man named Syrus, who owned property all over Israel. Upon the death of their father, her brother Lazarus remained in Jerusalem, while Bethany became the home of Martha, and Mary lived in a family property by the Sea of Galilee, in a coastal town called Magdala.
Third, in 415 A.D. St. John Cassian went to Marseille France and was shown the tombs of Martha and Mary Magdalene and it was well known at that time that Lazarus was considered the father of the Church there. So, if Mary Magdalene is not the Mary who is the sister of Martha and Lazarus, then where is that Mary? Why wasn’t she with her siblings? Why is she lost to history?
But if Magdalene is the sister of Martha and Lazarus then we have much to learn from her!
Two
Wednesday of Holy Week
On Wednesday of Holy Week, Jesus was at Bethany. Simon the leper was hosting a dinner for him. Lazarus was there and Martha was serving. Mary Magdalene with an alabaster jar of the most expensive perfumed ointment and poured it over the sacred head of Jesus and anointed his feet, wiping them with her hair. The house was filled with the perfumed scent. Then Judas Iscariot - one of his disciples, the man who was to betray him - said, “Why wasn't this ointment sold for three hundred days wages, and the money given to the poor?” He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief…Jesus said, “Leave her alone! She has done a beautiful thing to me. You have the poor with you always, you will not always have me. When she poured this ointment on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I say to you, wherever this Good News is proclaimed, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” (Matthew 26 and John 12)
I am so moved by what Jesus said to Mary, “She has done a beautiful thing to me.” I want to do something beautiful for Jesus. I’m sure you want to as well!
Three
The extravagant love of Mary
As the all-seeing gaze of Jesus penetrates the hearts of all those in the room of Bethany, he sees many things that displease him. He sees worldliness, self-interest, and even treachery, but there is one heart that is true and desires only to return her love to God.
While others are busy chatting and filled with distractions, Jesus looks into the depths of Mary’s heart and finds something of what he has found in the heart of his Mother. He finds attentiveness to his presence, the attentiveness of love. He finds adoration.
What should we learn from Mary and this anointing? She loved Jesus extravagantly. Think of it, she poured out a whole year’s worth of salary on Jesus in this one act of love. Mary shows us how to love Jesus excessively.
God has been so generous with us. We should be generous with Him in return.
Jesus deserves our best, but very often we lack generosity toward Him. Instead of giving what is most precious to us, our time sacrificing it to spend time with Jesus in prayer or at daily Mass, we very often give him the leftovers: leftover time, leftover energy, and attentiveness. We give Jesus the scraps after we have first done all the other things we think are more important or we enjoy more. For one always makes time for what one loves.
Jesus said Mary did something beautiful for Him. We want to do the same. But what does God want? What does he need? Our love, that’s all. He wants our love, our time, our attention. He just wants to be with us. That is prayer, that is Mass. It’s so simple and it is so beautiful.
Four
The Burial
After the Crucifixion Joseph of Arimathaea took the body of Jesus down from the cross, wrapped it in a clean shroud, and put it in his own new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock. He then rolled a large stone across the entrance of the tomb and went away. But Mary Magdalene stayed there, sitting opposite the tomb.
How long did she remain? Only God knows. But it was a long time. Mary Magdalene teaches us how to love Jesus generously with our most precious commodity, our time. Give Him time in prayer. She teaches us to show up for prayer to spend time with Jesus in prayer and remain with Him. If you give time generously to someone, that’s the best way to show them we love them. If we won’t spend time with them, well…
So persevere in daily meditation and a resolution. Persevere in remaining with Jesus in thanksgiving after receiving Him in the Eucharist. Persevere and your desire will grow and Jesus will fill you with Himself in a greater way.
Five
The Apostle to the Apostles
John Chapter 20 tells us Mary Magdalene was the first person he 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!
Apostle to France
In 42 AD, 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 he fled the country, probably to Rome. It was then that Herod arrested some of Jesus’ closest friends: Magdalene, Martha, Lazarus, Maximin, and others.
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. Their boat finally landed near what is today Marseille, France. They immediately began to share with everyone the Good News of the Resurrection of Jesus and they firmly established the Catholic Faith in France. Later Magdalene retreated to a life of prayer and solitude in a grotto halfway up the mountain of Saint Baume to be perpetually alone with Jesus.
Mary Magdalene, teach us to love Jesus extravagantly with our time in prayer and teach us to make the commitment to be with others in our family and with our friends to help them come to love Jesus as well.