Feast Patroness of Our Order

Mary of Magdala, Latin Mary Magdalene – the evangelists mention her as a companion of Jesus and a witness to his crucifixion and resurrection . There is also a series of writings that were rediscovered from the 19th century and in which Mary Magdalene is mentioned. The figure of Mary Magdalene was later embellished with legends. In it her importance was increased, or she was identified as the (nameless) foot-washing sinner in Luke’s Gospel. She has been interpreted as a prostitute or as a lover of Jesus. In fact, little is said about her or her life in the New Testament. It is striking that, according to the Gospel of John, she is said to have been the first to meet the resurrected Jesus. Her epithet refers to the location of Magdala on the Sea of ​​Galilee in the Holy Land.

Today we read in the Gospel about the person who was the first to come to the tomb and see the resurrected Jesus alive. As meet Jesus he was very just person and did not like to make differences between male and female. Any discussion of women’s roles in the church must begin with these two facts: It was a woman, not a man, to whom the Risen Christ first chose to appear. And it was a woman who, for a time, was the sole recipient, carrier and proclaimer of the Good News of the Resurrection. There is a discrimination against women in many Christian denominations, especially in traditional Western Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. As mainstream churches are famous in their supremacy of white and male dominant people. It is sad that church (that supposed to be a body of Christ) forgets that the words that Jesus personally said to a woman (Mary of Magdala) were:

“Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” John 20/17

Mary was the first person who was invited to be the preacher. The preacher of the Resurrected Jesus, the preacher of the Gospel. At that time, women did not have many rights. They did not have the right to talk freely and the men were those who had authority of preaching. Sadly today in many churches, despite the Gospel’s obvious blessing for equal treatment of men and women there are many churches that are not allowing women to be preachers. There are also many churches that are not allowing gay men to be preachers either. Sadly the dark period of the church is still not finished since the mid-century. Just it has a new form. Church does not kill any more in the name of Christianity as it used to be doing in mid-century but it blesses discrimination and persecution of LGBT+ individuals still treating the women as not worthy enough to be preachers. While some people doubt that Mary was in an emotional relationship with Jesus, others doubt that he was in emotional relationship with another apostle who he loved in a special way as we read in today’s Gospel John 20:1/2:

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. ² So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

What we read next is the invitation to preach Gospel, the invitation to preach about Resurrected Jesus. As you read, sisters and brothers, in the Gospel we did not have discussion about Lord’s sexual identity and whether he was in emotional relationship with Mary of Magdala or with the disciple, the one Jesus loved (as it is written in the Bible). God’s Word put the focus not onto our gender, sexual orientation, race and nationality. It puts its focus onto preaching. Preaching the Word about the Living Resurrected Jesus, Our Savior. I would like to let you think about that. I would like you to be also focused on Jesus and the forgiveness of sins that was given to us as a free gift. And my today’s prayer for all those discriminative brothers and sisters is that God may enlighten their hearts to see and feel the real love of God and to understand the real Gospel and the fact that we are all equal in Jesus. And let us all put our entire focus on the Resurrected Lord. Amen.

Song of Songs 3:1-4

¹ All night long on my bed
    I looked for the one my heart loves;
    I looked for him but did not find him.

² I will get up now and go about the city,
    through its streets and squares;
I will search for the one my heart loves.
    So I looked for him but did not find him.
³ The watchmen found me
    as they made their rounds in the city.
    “Have you seen the one my heart loves?”
⁴ Scarcely had I passed them
    when I found the one my heart loves.
I held him and would not let him go
    till I had brought him to my mother’s house,
    to the room of the one who conceived me.