Celebrating Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene is celebrated far and wide on July 22, her feast day. At the Community of St. Hildegard, we celebrated Mary Magdalene in our Sunday liturgy on July 23rd. The following is the homily I wrote about Mary Magdalene with a peek into the Gospel of Mary. Click here for my personal revelations that I received on a mini pilgrimage I did took to the cave in the south of France where, according to local legend, Mary Magdalene spent the last part of her life in prayer and contemplation.
“the Child of Humanity is within you.”
Jesus sent Mary: go to my disciples 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.”
Mary Magdalene is the Apostle to the apostles. And yet the Roman Catholic Church does not consider her to be an apostle. Her official feast day is July 22, which in some years, falls on a Sunday. But in those years, the Roman Catholic Church does not allow her feast day to be celebrated in a Sunday liturgy. Other than the mother of Jesus, no women are celebrated in Sunday liturgies.
But we are doing a new thing here!
What do we know about Mary Magdalene?
Mary Magdalene is identified in the Bible without attachment to any male; there are no husbands or sons named to validate her. She stands on her own.
Chapter 8 of Luke referred to Mary Magdalene as “Mary called Magdala” - Magdala was a nickname: “the tower,” not the name of her town - there were no towns named Magdala at that time.
Mary Magdalene was healed of seven demons - that makes her the most sanctified person in the Gospels!
Mary Magdalene Supported Jesus’ ministry out of her own funds.
Mary Magdalene may be been the Mary and Martha present at the death and resurrection of Lazarus - Check out the brand new scholarship by Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer.
Mary Magdalene was present at the foot of the cross along with Jesus’ mother and Mary the wife of Clopas.
Mary Magdalene was a myrrh-bearer, she went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body.
Mary Magdalene was the first to witness the risen Christ.
Mary Magdalene was a leader among the disciples because she got Jesus’ message.
Mary Magdalene fully embraced and embodied the message of Jesus.
Jesus found Mary Magdalene worthy of receiving even deeper teachings that the others were not ready for.
Mary Magdalene was the one who explained these teachings to the disciples after Jesus was gone.
Mary Magdalene was the one who turned their hearts back to the Good when the others feared for their own lives.
But Andrew thought that the teachings Mary Magdalene received from Jesus were too different from what Jesus had taught them.
But Peter rejected her because he wouldn’t accept that a woman could be entrusted with Jesus’ deepest teachings.
Since Peter became the leader of the church, his rejection of Mary’s leadership became the law for 2000 years.
But we are doing a new thing now.
The early church was made up of many “Christianities.”
Many communities were spread out geographically and followed different leaders, all who purported to follow Jesus.
Many leaders had different approaches to sharing the good news orally; of course, they would want to use the language and the stories that would resonate most deeply with their particular communities.
Many sacred texts and gospels were written, copied, translated and circulated.
The existence of the Gospel of Mary is evidence that there were communities who claimed Mary Magdalene as their apostolic founder - in the same way as the male disciple were claimed to be apostolic founders.
But these many and diverse Christianities abruptly ended in the fourth century when Emperor Constantine, after he stopped persecuting Christians and started conscripting them into his army, decided that a unified church would help unify his empire.
With a mandate from the emperor, the church leaders sorted through all the sacred texts, declaring some to be “orthodox” and labeling all the others as “heresy.” Any bishop who disagreed with the outcome was excommunicated (some things never change!). With that, the heretical texts were ordered destroyed. But the suppression of many of these texts was not completely successful.
One of those sacred texts was the Gospel of Mary.
It features Mary Magdalene but was probably not written by her because scholars date it after her lifetime, probably aroune 120 or 150 CE.
In the Gospel, we find three connected sections:
The first section begins on page 7 with a post-resurrection dialogue between Jesus and his disciples, and ends with Jesus’ departure. One of the readings form Sunday was the fourth section of The Gospel of Mary, and it’s from this first section.
The second section is a dialogue between Mary and the male disciples where we hear Mary consoling the frightened men, who are more concerned about their own persecution than spreading the gospel message, and Mary turning their hearts back to The Good (or God) - her leadership abilities on full display.
She steps into the vacuum left by Jesus’ departure.
Her credentials come from her close relationship as confidante of Jesus, and from being the one who fully received and understood his deeper teachings.
In the third section, Peter asks Mary to share the deeper teachings Jesus shared with her alone. Mary then explains a vision she had of a soul’s ascent to divine mystery, a journey past the powers of the world and towards the good in one’s inner consciousness, one’s behavior and one’s relationships. There are pages missing from this portion as well. After Mary finishes speaking, Peter and Andrew reject the teachings and denigrate Mary, because as a woman, she is not trustworthy.
The Gospel of Mary was originally written in Greek and translated into Coptic which indicates that the Gospel of Mary was in wide circulation, and that many committees claimed her as their leader.
The Gospel of Mary was deemed heretical no doubt because it featured a woman in a leadership role, and that was at odds with the concentration of power in the hands of a male hierarchy in the church.
We only have incomplete copies of the Gospel but scholars have pierced together what they suspect was the gist of the missing pages.
The first copy was discovered in Egypt in 1896, 50 years before the discoveries in Nag Hammadi [1945]
series of misadventures not translated until 1955, soon after discovery in Nag Hammadi
This copy was written in Coptic and dates from the 5th century
It now resides in the National Museum of Berlin
An additional partial copy was found in 1917 and then another tiny fragment of a third was published in 1983. Both of these later discoveries were written in Greek and date from the early 3rd century
Gnosticism
The Gospel of Mary is considered to be one of the Gnostic texts that emphasize the importance of a direct knowing or experiential knowing of the divine mystery, as compared to an intellectual knowing or head knowledge. Spiritual growth cannot happen through external regulation; it has to be sought by inner transformation.
Salvation is achieved through inner knowing of one’s true spiritual nature and overcoming the deceptive traps of the egoic mind and of the world.
The Song of Songs
In Sunday’s readings, we red from the third chapter of the Song of Songs - an odd book to be included in the canon describing as it does the steamy relationship between a bride and her groom. Some consider this book of the Bible to be a love story between God and God’s creatures.
When early Christians experienced the story of Mary Magdalene, whether through the rich oral tradition or later in written words, they drew parallels to the Song of Songs with which they were familiar. And once they saw the connection, it could not be unseen. The two were forever linked in the minds of the hearers. In the Song of Songs, the bride is yearning for her beloved, searching for him in the night. We hear the same yearning from Mary Magdalene as she searches for the body of Jesus.
This entire book of the bible is about the devotion of the bride and the groom to each other. Though we can not know if Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, we know that they were the closest of companions and very devoted to each other.
The Gospel of Mary
Now let’s take a look at a section from Chapter 4 of Mary’s Gospel which contains a warning for us as we search for God:
“Beware that no one lead you astray saying
‘Look over here or look over there!’
For the Child of Humanity is within you.
Follow it!
Those who seek it will find it.
Go then and proclaim the good news of the Realm
Do not lay down any rules beyond what I determined for you,
nor give a law like the lawgiver lest you be confined by it.”
These words may have a familiar ring to them. A similar warning can be found in Luke’s gospel as well:
“Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the reign of God would come, He answered them and said, ‘The reign of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the reign of God is among you.’”
Among you? Or within you? This is an example of how the gospels are similar, but yet radically different. The emphasis of later christianity was reduced to a path of ethical actions - labeling actions good or bad, which relied on external measures.
In the Gospel of Mary, the emphasis is on introspection and inner transformation - being in alignment with your true Self. Hence, the child of humanity is within you.
It is within you.
Why is this phrase so important?
Each of us has access to the power of divine love from within.
We are not dependent on any external authority to access that divine love.
Don’t waste your time looking outside of you for answers. Perhaps you are familiar with the old tale where someone is searching for a lost item where the light is better, and not where the item was lost. A village elder asks “Why do you search for treasure in the streets, in the square, when it is really in your own home that you lost what you most want? In your own heart -- that is where you must search. It is there that your treasure has always been waiting to be found.”
Are you searching for divine love outside of yourself? Each one of us has access to our truest selves, where the spark of divinity burns, right now, no more striving required. No need to comb your hair and put the pearl necklace on -- you already have access to divine love. It is within you.
You don’t need anyone’s permission. You don’t need anyone’s approval.
Can you see why the church condemned this teaching?
For the Child of Humanity is within you.
Follow it!
The invitation here is to go beyond whatever confines and imprisons you,
To become more fully human and more fully divine,
To grow out of your fears.
To follow what you know to be true.
Walk into the expansive fullness of divine love that frees you to live your life to the fullest.
Jesus assures us: “Those who seek it will find it.”
And then continues…
“Do not lay down any rules beyond what I determined for you,
nor give a law like the lawgiver lest you be confined by it.
When He said this He departed.”
Do not become slaves to the laws that we have imposed on ourselves and others. In the words of St. Francis of Assisi, “We have no other rule than the gospel. Do not add to it, do not make other rules. Your rule is the gospel and he who incarnates it.”
We are invited to live into the spirit of Jesus, not follow the letter of the laws that have been added to and around the gospel.
That spirit is alive in each one of us.
We each have direct access to divine love right now!
Turn within and discover the divine love that is waiting for you. Come to know that you are a child of humanity nourished by divine love.
And then live your life from this truest identity of divine love.