St. Magdalene Never Returned to Her Old Ways

by:  Bro. Mar de Chavez

St. Mary was given the name 'Magdalen' because, although she was a Jewish, she lived in a Gentile town called Magdale, in northern Galilee, and adapted the Gentiles’ culture and conducts.

  

Magdalene was a notorious sinner before she met Jesus. She was extremely beautiful and overly haughty but had been penitent of her evil life after her encounter with our Lord.

When Jesus had His supper in a rich man’s home named Simon, Mary came to weep at His feet. She wiped Jesus’ feet with her long beautiful hair and anointed them with expensive perfume. Some people were surprised that Jesus allowed such a sinner touched Him, but Jesus could see into Mary's heart and said: "Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved very much." (Luke 7:41-43)

Compared with other Saints, St. Magdalene has been accounted with a numerous narratives.  A number of journals have been alluded as she herself being pointed about.  For example: Jesus Christ dine with the leprous (Matthew 26:6-8) and together with her in that place were Lazaruz and Martha....So that Lazarus had an opportunity dining with Jesus (John 12:1-3).

Before the seven devils were released from Magdalene, she had been noted for a tarnished comportment.  Seven devils refer to the seven capital sins (pride, greed, gluttony, lust, sloth, envy, anger). 

In the Holy Scripture accounts, it’s seldom that the evil spirits found on one’s lifestyle are reckoned but in St. Magdalene’s sequence of events, everything was looked upon.

At the time, sinners were publicly known in the community of Jews.  They were not welcome in any spiritual assembly and church functions (Mark 2:6). This type of intolerance was changed when Jesus descended and kept company with the sinners.

There is a particular tradition of the Jews that women who’s into menstrual period (Leviticus 15:19) are disallowed to enter the temple so that St. Magdalene had been deprived of it for 12 years (Matthew 9:20) brought by her bleeding condition (Luke 8:43).

On the eight day after the menstrual period (Leviticus 15:29), prescribed ritual is observed in atonement for the unclean flow before she is allowed of entrance to the temple.

Anyone who is into a transgressed life is outcast in the Jews’ community.

Mary Magdalene had her assistant namely Sera which tipped-off that she was a well-heeled woman in her time.  Another account that can be associated for this claim that she was affluent  is the luxuriousness  she showed when she splashed out her perfume on Jesus’ feet which is worth 300 dinar.  One dinar is equal to a day’s wage in today’s money. This St. Magdalene had shown out of so much appreciation of love that Jesus had unreservedly bestowed on her.

Luke 7:47 So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little....Similarly, the one who received great mercy and absolution animates grandest service through sharing his/her three T's (time, treasure and talent). 

Unlike the disciples who were fed in the miracle of loaves (Matthew 14:16-20) who later on gradually disappeared, St. Magdalene never left until Jesus’ last breath on the Cross. St. Magdalene had been known for her sacrifices to follow Jesus. 

Through the years that Jesus spoke to the people, his disciples had gradually slipped who misunderstood Him when he spoke about the Eucharist (John 7:33-37).  Towards the end, only the 12 apostles had made their commitment  which eventually became 11 because of a deserter. 

Other than John the Beloved and St. Peter who were closest to Jesus, St. Mary Magdalene followed Jesus inexorably up to the Calvary. St. Magdalene was the first eye-witness when Jesus resurrected instead of St.Peter and St. John.

James 1:26-27 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, his religion is vain. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Prayer without action is dead.

It’s like when you parents ask you to do something wherein you committed but failed to do so as promised (Matthew 21:28-32). This is likewise indistinguishable to attending Prayer Meeting; whatever being absorbed in the formation will be the same values that everyone will carry out in flesh and blood when we’re already on the outside world.

Every answered prayers and graces are channelled through the Holy Spirit.  God has already granted a petition long before you ask of something in prayers because the Holy Spirit dwells in you yet.

The pinnacle of prayers is holiness rather than eminence and affluence.

James 2:17 Faith without action is dead. 

James 2:18 Indeed someone might say, "You have faith and I have works." Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works. 

Above and beyond the perfume that St. Mary had profligately poured on Jesus’ feet, she also brought a lavish amount of it during the Resurrection.  It was the custom at that time that they Jews mummified the corpse with a cloth which they splatter with perfume after three days so it would not stench.  Conventionally, half of the body’s weight of the corpse is the same measurement of a perfume that is being used.

John 12:3-8 Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Then Judas the Iscariot, one (of) his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said, "Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days' wages and given to the poor?" He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions. So Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."

St. Magdalene was given a remarkably treasured gift, because of all women and men at the time, she was blessed enough to be the first person whom Jesus had revealed His Resurrection. With this encounter, she became the root of evangelization, proclaiming later on to her brethren that Jesus indeed had risen and back to life.

Only the three Mary’s (Mary Magdalene,Mary Salome,  mother of James (Luke 24:9-10) had exerted effort to go to Jesus’ tomb (Mark 16:1). 

St. Magdalene had never been into a spiritual dryness as Jesus’ follower.   She had been in dyad with Jesus in outreaches and evangelization. 

No one among the saints like Mary Magdalene has ever been mentioned consistently in the Four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke &  John).  Others were only accounted in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke )

St. Magdalene had never gone back to her old ways so that she had been rewarded by Jesus to be the root of evangelization.  So it’s not surprising if you could find a huge number of Sisters' Convents than the Priests' Congregations.  Because of this, it’s not bewildering if you could see more women churchgoers than men.  Brought by this, it won’t be mystifying if you can hit  upon more women in Prayer Meetings than men.  This is because, there were more women beside Jesus as He breathed His last on the Calvary.

 

Luke 8:1-3 Afterward He journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Accompanying him were the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources.

She  is the model of endurance and perseverance.

She is a Jewish and reside in Gentile Magdala. During their time, surname had not been existent yet.  Searching for the family tree at that time was through the lineage (John 7:42), that’s why Jesus was identified as Someone who came from David’s family (John 7:42) without surname detection.

Fourteen years after Our Lord's death, St. Mary along Sts. Lazarus and Martha, St. St. Maximin (who baptized her), St. Sidonius ("the man born blind"), her maid Sera Sera, and the body of St. Anne  the mother of the Blessed Virgin were put in a boat by the Jews without sails or oars. They were sent wafting out to sea and landed on the shores of France where St. Mary spent the rest of her life as a contemplative.

There was an account that she was given the Holy Eucharist daily by angels as her only food. Just before her death, she was transported mysteriously to the chapel of St. Maximin where she received the last sacraments. She died at the age of 72.

St. Mary Magdalene’s Feast is July 22.

She is the Patron Saint of those who reform their lives.

People may be alienated why she has been chosen as Patron Saint of the people who transform instead of the harlots.  Could you imagine how could a particular red house transform if you could find prayers of the ladies like, "Lord, please give us huge customers tonight”, or “Please bring back my wealthy  client.”

The genuine good news is the summary of all God’s mystery.  St. Magdalene was the recipient and carrier of the Good News to the Apostles.

Why did jesus entrust the Good news to a woman than to His men Apostles like John the Beloved or St. Peter who were two of His cherished Apostles?  This is because Jesus trusts women a lot.