Three followers of Jesus made it to the foot of the Cross, and six women went to the tomb to anoint Christ's body: why among them all was Mary Magdalene chosen to be the first witness to the Good News? Perhaps because she was a repentant sinner who knew she needed Jesus to save her - she proclaimed salvation as one who had been saved! A powerful witness which echoes through the ages.
In my second year studying Law at University, I studied Criminal Law with a German Professor named Michael Bohlander, whose teaching style could sometimes be a little eccentric. In our first lecture he showed us the scene from Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail where a group of peasants had brought a woman to their local knight to accuse her of being a witch – asking permission to burn her! I won’t share the whole scene with you but by a process of reasoning they reason that since you burn witches and you also burn wood, witches must be made of wood, and because wood floats and ducks float they must also be made of wood, and so if the woman weighed the same as a duck she must be made of wood and therefore she must be a witch and the villagers could burn her. So they put her in a large set of scales, find that she weighs the same as a duck and burn her. Professor Bohlander showed us this video and waited a moment after it ended, before announcing “and that ladies and gentlemen is why we need rules of evidence in Criminal trials.”
Whenever something serious is on the line, especially in criminal and civil trials, we need evidence before sending someone to prison or depriving them of vast sums of money. Most often this evidence comes from witnesses – people saying I saw him do it, or I was with him when this allegedly happened. We ask whether witnesses are trustworthy before deciding who to believe, but we demand eye-witness evidence because seeing is believing – and if we don’t see it ourselves but have to decide what to believe, we look for a witness.
Today’s feast day, the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, is the feast of a witness, in fact the first witness, to the resurrection; she saw the risen Jesus and was told to go to the Apostles and tell them Christ is Risen and is going before you to Galilee. She is the first person charged with proclaiming the Good News.
Who is this Mary Magdalene? Why was she so chosen? There were others who went to the tomb that day – Mary the Mother of Jesus, Mary the wife of Cleopas, Mary the Mother of James and John, Salome, and Joanna – why not them? Especially Our Blessed Mother – why was she not chosen and sent like Mary Magdalene?
To understand this it’s helpful to know that in the old Missal, the one we used until 1969, this was the feast day of “Mary Magdalene, Penitent” – her reason for sainthood was her penitence – her repentance. Some of the Gospel traditions identify her as the woman of ill-repute who anointed Jesus’ feet, and thus also as the sister of Lazarus. Regardless, there is a long tradition of regarding her as one of the repentant sinners who followed Jesus.
When we look at the disciples who followed Jesus, only three, the most faithful to him, made it to the foot of the Cross, and they each represent a special cause for holiness. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, standing for perfect obedience, John the beloved, the youngest Apsotle, standing for the virtue of innocence, and Mary Magdalene, the repentant sinner.
This helps us to understand why she, and not Mary the Mother or John the beloved, was chosen – all three had remained faithful, but it was Mary Magdalene who most needed Jesus as a Saviour; she who was a sinner, one of those lost sheep of the house of Israel, was found by the good shepherd and brought into the flock, following Him knowing that she had been forgiven in Him. His sacrifice was for people like her, people like us, sinners in need of forgiveness.
And so it is Mary Magdalene the penitent, who is chosen to proclaim the Good News because the Good News was for her. It is not just a proclamation that Jesus died and rose again for sinners, but Jesus died and rose again for me – I was lost and now I’m found, I have been washed clean by His blood. She proclaims salvation because salvation is proclaimed by repentant sinners for other sinners in need of repentance.
This feast day calls each one of us to rejoice again, with Easter Joy, in our freedom: that Jesus, the Son of God, died for our sake and rose again so that we could rise with Him. It also calls us to go out as witnesses to that Joy, to proclaim proudly,
I am a sinner, but I have been set free in Jesus Christ. Trust in Him, and follow Him, and He will set you free as well.
Laudetur Jesus Christus.
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
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