Mary Magdalene

This coming week, the Church will be celebrating St. Mary Magdalene. The most common misconception about Mary Magdalene is that she is the woman caught in adultery in John 8. To date, The Chosen is the only portrayal of the life of Jesus that I have seen that has not made this mistake, and I give major credit to them for that. If you look closely at John 8, the woman is never actually named. Instead, Mary Magdalene is identified in Mark 16:9 as having been exorcised of seven demons, as well as listed in Luke 8:2-3 as being one of the women who accompanied Jesus on His journey. What is indisputable about her identity, however, is that she was the first person entrusted with proclaiming the “good news” of the Resurrection (the Gospel). 

St. Mary Magdalene, according to the Bible, was the first person to see the risen Lord. From there, she is told by our Lord to go to the Eleven and tell them that He is risen. As if it was not enough of an honor to see our Risen Lord, she can claim to be the first; and as if that was still not enough, she is the first to go and spread the word. Because of this, she is hailed as the “apostle to the Apostles.” Apostle comes from the Greek word “apostolos,” which means “one who is sent.” Mary Magdalene is “one who is sent” to go on this great mission, to proclaim the Gospel to the Eleven and to be effectively the first missionary of the new Church. 

We look to Mary Magdalene for this example: to be missionaries ourselves. But if we look closely at this, Mary did not have to go to the other side of the world to accomplish this mission. She only had to go a mile or two. We ourselves likewise do not necessarily need to go to the other side of the world to be missionaries; we can be missionaries here in our own neighborhoods. Every time we mention that we are Catholic and why, we are proclaiming the Gospel; every time we accomplish some spiritual or corporal work of mercy, we are proclaiming the Gospel. May we, like Mary Magdalene, be missionaries to our friends and neighbors, and lead them to faith in the Resurrection as she did.