Homily – She was faithful: Mary Magdalene
“Those who are forgiven much, loves much.” This is a lesson heard in the latter part of our Gospel reading for today (Luke 7:36-50), and it is fitting that we should receive them on this day. In my humble opinion, few in the scriptures exemplifies these words, than that of Mary Magdalene, whose feast day we celebrate today. She is a woman who bears many titles or cognomens within the Church. She is one of the eight Myrrh Bearing Women whom the Church also celebrates. She is the first to see the risen Christ, going to the tomb to anoint His body in a final act of love and devotion, only to find that He was not there. She is the first to preach the risen Christ, preached first to the Apostles, and is likely the first person ever to utter those glorious words we say so joyously each year: He is risen! She proclaimed to the Apostles, “I have seen the Lord,” and so she is the Apostle to the Apostles because she preached to them the risen Christ. She is equal to the Apostles for her ministry and aid to not only to the apostles, but to the other women in the temple, the women in a society where women are often overlooked.
Who is this woman? Who is Mary Magdalene? She was born of the town Magdala, along the shore of Lake Gennesaret, of the tribe of Issachar. Tradition informs us that she was young and pretty, but led a sinful life wherein she was tormented by seven evil spirits – from which she was healed and released from their torment, and made whole by our Lord Jesus Christ. From this point forward she followed Christ in His ministry, and as the following chapter attests, she ministers to Christ (and the apostles) out of her own resources, leading us to believe that Mary was a woman of wealth. We know little else about her, yet she is mentioned twelve times in the Gospels, which turns out to be more occasions than most of the apostles are mentioned. It also tells us that she was likely vital to the ministry of Christ, and that she was important in the eyes of the evangelists.
She performed no great works. No miracles are attributed to her in the Gospels. She was a woman of seemingly low stature in the bigger picture of the ministry of Christ. Even at the foot of the cross, when the Evangelists detail those that were standing there, listing the myriad women followers of Christ, all of them mention her first. This indicates that she stood out from the other women who followed Christ. Some would attest she stood out because of her beauty. I agree with this in part, but not because of any worldly beauty, for indeed she carried a true beauty, a beauty which is only found in holiness. She stood out from the rest because of her great faith in Christ our God.
Faith. Hebrews Chapter 11 tells us that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Put in another way, our faith is the underlying reality of our lives, those things we do serving to prove that which we believe by incarnating Christ into the world. The two words commonly translated as faith in the scriptures are Πίστις and πιστεύω. One is a noun, and the other is a verb. One lends the idea that one becomes their faith, they become the living embodiment of that which they believe. The other presents faith as that which we do, that our faith is made evident by word and deed in our day to day lives. Perhaps a “better” translation would be “faithing.” For ours is not a faith of mind or mental ascent alone, but ours is a faith of action. We are to incarnate Christ into this world. The Church is to incarnate Christ into this world.
So, Mary Magdalene had faith not because she believed in her mind, or believed because she saw Christ in his ministry, but it is said she had faith because she became what she believed. She had faith, for when the lord was praised, lauded, and celebrated by the people, she was with him. It is easy to have faith in such times. She had faith, for when the teachings became difficult, or the way became too hard, she stayed by His side when others left him. She had faith, for when Christ was accused and the Apostles scattered, she stayed near him, she did not abandon Him. She had faith when Christ was accused to die, and marched with Him among the weeping women on the way to his crucifixion. She had faith, and she was there when Christ died, standing with His All-Pure and most holy mother. She had faith, and she was still there when Christ was laid in the tomb. She had faith, that even in His death, she went to attend to Him one last time, even though by doing so she would gain nothing in this world, but in doing so she gained Christ. In gaining Christ, she gained the whole world.
Her faith is a shining example for us all. She was not called to magnificent works, but simply to be faithful to him in in our day to day lives whatever circumstances she faced. We all have reason to love Christ, for we have all been healed of infirmities we ourselves have inflicted upon our very Souls. Mary knew that her life was not her own, owing her entire life to the One who healed her, and supporting Christ and the apostles in their ministry. It was her day to day devotion and her seemingly small acts of faith and love – staying with Christ regardless of the temperament of the times – that made her worthy to be the first to proclaim the resurrected Christ. She was faithful in even the smallest things, and for her faith she was given all things. It is by her example of humility that we should not set aside or dismiss the great importance of even those small opportunities in our own lives for serving Christ, making manifest His love into the world. For, our lives are not a series of grand moments and encounters, or great adventures and fairy tale endings, but more often than not our lives are a pattern of laborious responsibilities and repititious routines we carry out from day to day. So, while grand gestures and opportunities of faith are of benefit in the right context, if we are not faithful to Christ with even the smallest occasions in our lives to do so, if we are not willing to be faithful to him in even the most unremarkable of ways, then we cannot say that we truly offer up our lives to Christ. For, let us not forget the words of Christ in Luke chapter 16: “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a little thing is unrighteous also in much.”
Mary Magdalene was faithful in all things, she was faithful in the smallest things, and she was faithful in the most unremarkable things. While she accomplished no remarkable deeds in scripture, she is remarkable and great because of the faith she had in Christ our God. When Christ ascended to sit at the right hand of God the Father, she continued in that faith.
Holy Tradition testifies that Mary departed from Jerusalem with the Apostles to preach to the ends of the earth. Mary went to preach in Rome. She proclaimed the Christ and uplifted and exhorted the people with the teachings of Christ. There were of course many who did not accept her words about the risen Christ, but she repeated those words she preached to the Apostles: “I have seen the Lord!” This is the message she carried across the land of Italy.
Tradition also reveals to us that Mary Magdalene visited the Roman Emperor Tiberius, proclaiming to him the resurrection of Christ. With this she brought a red egg as a symbol of the resurrection, giving it to him with these words: “Christ is Risen!” She then told the Emperor of the man unjustly condemned in his province of Judea, the Galilean named Jesus; who was a holy man and a miracle worker; who was powerful before God and all mankind; who was executed at the instigation of the Jewish authorities, and confirmed by his appointed procurator Pontius Pilate. She repeated to him the words of the Apostles, stating how our life is not found in the things of this world, but in the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. She audaciously spoke truth to power, and so should we do likewise.
It is from this encounter that we receive our tradition of giving one another those red paschal eggs on the day we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, it is of interest to note, that in a particular ancient Greek manuscript, written on parchment, kept in the monastery library of Saint Athanasius near Thessalonica, is a prayer read on the day of Holy Pascha for the blessing of eggs and cheese. In it is indicated that the igumen (ἡγούμενος, head of the monastery) in passing out the blessed eggs says to the brethren: “Thus have we received from the holy Fathers, who preserved this custom from the very time of the holy Apostles, therefore the holy Equal of the Apostles Mary Magdalene first showed believers the example of this joyful offering.” It is a practice we still honor and maintain in the Church today.
After her laboring in Rome had been completed, and already bent with old age, she moved to Ephesus where Saint John the Theologian was continuing his work, and she joined him in the preaching of the Holy Gospel to the world. It is here that she reposed in her earthly life and was buried.
Saint Mary Magdalene is a precious example of faith in action; a compelling example of faith in life in all things both big and small. She shows us that we do not have to be miracle workers; we not have to be great theologians; we do not have to be great intellectuals; and we do not have to be bishops, priests and deacons to make a tremendous impact in the life of the Church, or in the world in which she lives. We must only be faithful with what we have been given. We must be faithful with our whole being and in all things remarkable and unremarkable, and in so doing we will be the brightest of lights shining into the darkness of this world. We make known our faith by what we do in all things, and we show our love of Christ in our obedience to his word and will, doing so when the times are good, or in the face of death. Truth is unchanging. Truth is unwavering. Truth is a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. May we never waver and turn away from the Truth, and remain by his side just as Mary the Magdalene did, and still is.
