Mary Magdalene, Seeker

Jul 22: Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene

Jul 22, 2024

Today is the feast of St. Mary Magdalene. There’s some dispute as to how exactly Magdalene met Jesus, depending on how you interpret the various Gospels. The Catholic teaching is that she is both the sister of Martha and Lazarus, and the “sinful woman” who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears in Luke 7:36-50.

It’s possible that Luke didn’t name her because she was still alive at the time of his writing, and didn’t want to embarrass her.1 Whereas John2 wrote at a later date, his readers wouldn’t necessarily know the context, and there was no chance of defaming her after her death.

Protestants seem reluctant to identify the "sinner" with the sister of Martha, since they have an incomplete grasp of the significance of the forgiveness of sin. They’d rather not associate one of Jesus’s most faithful followers with her sin. Yet, that’s the point of Jesus’s forgiveness. The sin is blotted out from God’s record, as though it never even happened.

Once she’s been forgiven, once we’ve been forgiven in the sacrament of Reconciliation, we’re no longer sinners. At least, until the next time we sin.

Reading 1

Sgs 3:1-4b

The Bride says: On my bed at night I sought him whom my heart loves–I sought him but I did not find him. I will rise then and go about the city; in the streets and crossings I will seek Him whom my heart loves. I sought him but I did not find him. The watchmen came upon me, as they made their rounds of the city: Have you seen him whom my heart loves? I had hardly left them when I found him whom my heart loves.

The literal sense of this passage is obviously a romantic story of a woman looking for her husband. But since the earliest days of Christianity, it’s been seen as an allegory of our mortal souls seeking union with divinity. We look all over for Him, but we won’t find Him in other [watch]men; we find Him when we’ve left the world behind.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9

R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
O God, you are my God whom I seek;
for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts
like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary
to see your power and your glory,
For your kindness is a greater good than life;
my lips shall glorify you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus will I bless you while I live;
lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name.
As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied,
and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
You are my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.
My soul clings fast to you;
your right hand upholds me.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.

Here, the object of seeking is made explicit. God is the ultimate good, from which all other goods flow. We should love our neighbors, but we only have neighbors thanks to God. God came first, and we should always put God first in our lives.

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R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Tell us, Mary, what did you see on the way?
I saw the glory of the risen Christ, I saw his empty tomb.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Mary was blessed to be the first to meet the risen Christ.

Gospel

Jn 20:1-2, 11-18

On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him."

Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?"

She said to them, "They have taken my Lord, and I don't know where they laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?"

She thought it was the gardener and said to him, "Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him."

Jesus said to her, "Mary!"

She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni," which means Teacher.

Jesus said to her, "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and then reported what he told her.

We saw how the first reading could be read as an analogy, but it also has a anagogical sense.3 Like the bride in Song of Songs, Mary sought Jesus while He was alive. She continued to seek Him after His death, and thus was blessed with being the first to find Him arisen.

Which leads us to the final sense—tropological, or moral, sense. Even today, we must continually seek out Christ in our lives, through our relationship with others and directly through prayer and the Holy Eucharist.

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