Mary of Magadala, apostle of apostles,

Like Mary Magdalene, we, too, can accept Jesus’ liberating action. We are to give not what we have but what we are. The image of Mary Magdalene, created based on legendary and apocryphal data, with which people still identify to a large extent today, differs in some elements from the image compiled from the reports of all four evangelists. We tried to supplement the facts that we do not know about Mary Magdala from reports about some women in the Gospels so that this abbreviation may have led to a distorted image of her character.

What the evangelists write?

The evangelists mention her fourteen times in their writings. Each describes Mary Magdalene, whose feast day we celebrate this month (July 22), with their sensibility. Lukáš brings her close to Jesus from the beginning of his public appearances; she accompanied him during his suffering and burial, and Jesus was the first to appear to her. Matthew mentions her among the women who watched Jesus’ suffering from afar and how she comes to the tomb with another Mary at the dawn of the first day. At the end of his Gospel, Mark states that Jesus appeared to her as the first and only woman. In the Gospel of John, she has a unique position: she stood by the cross of Jesus, came early in the morning to the tomb where Jesus appeared to her first, and brought Jesus’ disciples a precious testimony and Jesus’ message about their mission.

What the evangelists do not write?

The evangelists do not say that Mary of Magdala was a prostitute or a sinner. She cannot even be identified as the woman who washed and anointed Jesus’ feet because she is not named in the Gospels (cf. Lk 7, 37-40). Not even with the sinner in John’s Gospel who was about to be stoned. Lukáš states that seven evil spirits came out of her. Illness, either mental or physical, was also considered to be the influence of an evil spirit. Jesus healed her; it is unknown under what influence of an evil spirit, and she, aware of the gift she received from him, could return to the fullness of life and give herself in selfless service. Jesus’ healing touch freed the imprisoned powers of love in her, which could now express gratitude to their Liberator.

Freed for God’s ways.

Inner healing will be verified by life itself. Only a person who is internally healed, free, and united in his thinking, feeling, and action are capable of giving himself in selfless love. She can detach herself from her plans to fully open herself to God’s ways, like Mary of Magdala, who followed the Lord as a disciple, the first among other women. Love did not allow her to distance herself from the Lord even in the hour of his suffering on the cross. And she did not leave him even after death: she testifies that love is stronger than death. A woman who, like Jesus’ Mother Mary, pursued only one goal in life from the moment of her liberation, to be with Jesus and for him, did not change it even after Jesus’ death.

We find her at the grave, as she too is waging a battle with death, which at first she thinks she has won. She did not know that the match was unequal. And with her, we don’t remember when we often looked for the living among the dead, the fullness of life in fragments of fleeting earthly happiness, and the love we wanted to pay for as in a store. But we get the most beautiful facts in life for free—both love, the fullness of life, and true happiness. There is no way to subscribe. However, like Mary Magdalene, we can accept Jesus’ liberating action and not pay but donate. Not what we have, but what we are.

Witness of the Resurrection.

Only love can fight death. The love of Jesus won this battle as the purest, most selfless love, which does not seek its own benefit but the highest good of the other. Only the one who loves us and gives everything for us can speak our name so that we recognize his love, himself. After his only address in front of the empty tomb, Mária knows that he is alive and near. He sent it to the apostles, to those who would also be sent to testify about the empty tomb and Jesus’ resurrection. And Mária expresses her entire experience in a few words: I saw the Lord. As Eve saw the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, Mary saw the fruit of the tree of life in the garden before the tomb: the living Lord.

Questions for reflection.

Do I recognize with gratitude what the Lord has already healed inside me? Are there still wounded places I should allow him to enter with my love? Do I perceive that the Lord knows my name and pronounces it with love, thanks to which I can recognize his call and my mission?