St Mary Magdalen meditating on the crucifix

Jesus allowed her to wash His feet but knew well what those eyes had looked on. He allowed her lips to kiss His feet knowing what sinful words had fallen from them. He did not shrink from the touch of hands which had served Satan so long. He even welcomed the love of a heart so long filled with unholy desires. Mary, penitent as she is, could not fully know the depth of her guilt, she had forgotten many sins; but Jesus saw all. . . .

In those few moments Mary had learnt a precious lesson: that peace, contentment, holiness are to be found at the feet of Jesus and there alone, that the delights of contemplation far outweighs the empty joys which the world offers.

COMMENT: Today is the feast of St Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene was of great significance in the early Church. There is some confusion as to her exact identity; until recent decades she was typically identified with the sinful adulteress or prostitute who washed the feet of Jesus with her tears and dried them with her hair. Other scripture scholars suggests that she was not this individual.

It ultimately matters little. What we do know is that Jesus cast seven devils from her (Luke Chapter 8), and that she followed Him closely and loved Him dearly; that she stayed by the foot of the cross while many others (including almost all of the Apostles) abandoned Him. She prepared His sacred body for the tomb, and after the Sabbath, even before dawn, she rushed to the tomb to anoint the body. Jesus rewarded her love – she was the second person He appeared to after His resurrection (tradition tells us that He surely appeared first to His mother Mary, even though this is not described in the Gospels). Jesus had a special mission for Mary Magdalene – He told her to go and tell His Apostles about His resurrection! Here is a woman who had been possessed by seven devils (and who may or may not have been a prostitute) and Jesus gave her the job of telling His specially chosen ones about His resurrection!

There is a profound message here. Jesus loves all of us, and everyone is given a special task, irrespective of our past sins, irrespective of whether we are male or female, irrespective of our position in the hierarchy of the Church and irrespective of whether we are ordained or not. The converted St Mary Magdalene, the model of penitents, was given a special mission to announce the resurrection to others. Significantly, she didn’t need to be ordained to do this…