Jesus’ Appearance to Mary Magdalene: In today’s gospel reading, we are invited into a remarkable and poignant scene on Easter morning. After the conclusion of the sabbath the night before, Mary Magdalene and two other women purchased spices to anoint our Lord’s crucified body. But when they came to the sepulcher very early in the morning, they found it empty. A young man (presumably an angel as mentioned in Matthew and John) informed them that Jesus had gone before them into Galilee. They fled trembling.
Later that morning, but still early, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene “out of whom he had cast seven demons.” She was the very first person to whom he appeared after he was risen.
This is intense!
Of all the people on Earth, including Peter and the other apostles, and even his own mother, Jesus chose to appear first to a woman of no rank in society and with a challenging past, but a person of great devotion whose faith had saved her. While we do not know Jesus’ intention, his choice potentially says so much about so many things – faith and devotion, Christ’s mercy, and the role of women in the history of the Church.
Christ’s Abundant Mercy
While she is said to have traveled with Christ and the apostles and was present at his crucifixion, Mary Magdalene was nowhere near the top of a “who’s who” of the time in terms of status or wealth or position. She was prominent in a much deeper way, having humbled herself to the point of acknowledging her mistakes and opening her heart to Christ and having the courage to accept his forgiveness as a way forward.
Who better than she to remind us of Christ’s forgiving nature and love for mankind without regard for the worldly trappings that hasten people to the front of the line here on Earth.
Cornelius a Lapide (a Belgian Jesuit writing commentaries on the Bible in the 17th Century) commented on the reference in Mark’s Gospel to the seven devils cast out of her, stating, “With these was Magdalene the sinner so inflamed, that she deserved first to see Christ risen again, that from her sinners might learn not to despair, but vehemently to love; for so they shall surpass the Holy Innocents in grace and glory.” Venerable Bede observed, “Because where sin abounded, grace hath superabounded.”
God’s Light Shines on Us All – Every Moment of Our Lives
Sometimes it is overwhelming to contemplate these poignant vignettes of human experience and God’s presence among us. It is so amazing that the divinely inspired words that guide our Faith include not only the majestic and the heavenly, but also the smallest details about our human life. These scenes remind me of a Vermeer painting where the light through a window on the street highlights an intimate domestic scene in such a way that we can all relate to it regardless of what place or century we live in.
