MARY MAGDALENE

August 4 (July 22) The Church celebrates the memory of St. Mary Magdalene. Orthodox tradition calls Saint Mary “equal to the apostles.” The historical cathedral of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Warsaw is dedicated in the name of Mary Magdalene. This rare dedication testifies to the significant veneration of this saint in Orthodoxy.

With the mention of the appearance of the Risen Lord Jesus to Mary Magdalene, the final passage of the Gospel of Mark begins, in which the Event of the Resurrection is summed up in brief words. The Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene, then to the disciples on their way to a certain village. He appeared to the myrrh-bearers and individual members of the Apostolic Community. They, that is, Mary herself and the other Myrrh-Bearing Women, announced this to others. But they cried and wept over His death, that is, they were unable to accept the news of His Resurrection. “She went and told those who were with Him, weeping and mourning; but when they heard that He was alive and that she had seen Him, they did not believe,” testifies the Gospel of Mark about Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:11-12).

In the Gospel reading, the myrrh-bearing women come to the Tomb of the Savior. The Risen One appears to two disciples on the way. In conveying the news of the Resurrection, both the myrrh-bearers encounter unbelief. As a result, the Lord Himself appears to His community. “He appeared to the eleven who were reclining at supper, and reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who saw Him risen,” writes Mark (Mark 16:14). It’s difficult for us to talk about this directly. But the community was sure that the Lord finally and irrevocably died on the Cross.

It turns out that individual testimonies met with the disbelief of the entire community. The community at that moment was the Church, about to be born on the Day of Pentecost. It turns out that the history of our Church, this apostolic assembly, begins with the faith of the few who saw the Lord, with the faith of those who believed His Resurrection, who proclaimed it and transmitted it to others. At the same time, the history of the Church begins with the unbelief of the community, as the Church itself and as a single whole.

This simple and, at the same time, inexhaustible in the depth of meaning, narrative from the Gospel shows us the dialectic of faith and unbelief—a lesson for the Church and us, believers, for all times. The history of the Church and the history of churches often gives us an example of unbelief, or faith that cannot be called faith.

It happens that we, as the Church, as those who represent the Church, carry the word of God, even when we do not preach, when we are silent and even hide our believing identity. This happens due to our participation in the Lord in Baptism.

Likewise, in silence we can convey, as if broadcast, disbelief. The world, as a secular community, is insightful more often than we think. Therefore, reproach, condemnation, bewilderment towards us and Christianity have been and will be heard for all times. “In essence there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross,” Friedrich Nietzsche pronounced his verdict on Christians. By the way, the title of his main work critical of Christianity, “der Antichrist”, literally in German “the Antichristian,” was at one time translated into English as “Antichrist.” As if the readers, unworthy Christians according to Nietzsche’s plan, as if in some kind of parable, wanted to “deflect” the blow from themselves and “redirect” it to the Lord.

At the very beginning, the Lord appeared to the disciples through closed doors and passed through walls. The Lord ate food with the Apostles, explained the Scriptures, and indicated when and how to cast a net on the Sea of Galilee for a rich catch of fish. The Lord asked Peter about love and forgave his betrayal. In all those few words and lines of the Gospel, testifying to the Resurrection, in many ways and in a variety of ways, for the entire future history of the Church, Jesus spoke, indicated and preached.

In turn, the History of the Church tells us that in the Church and churches, small and large church communities there were special witnesses who already saw the Lord risen here and now. Each time they saw Him, and, most importantly, they proclaimed Him in a new way. Each time it was different. Each time the Lord spoke and performed signs in a unique way. Thus, individual testimony entered into the memory of the Church.

In the same way, in the history of the Church we can and should find special signs of the presence of the Risen One. These unique truths… are eternal and life-giving for all time. They give life and nourish the Church with the testimony of the Resurrection. The main thing is to under no circumstances give room for disbelief in these signs of God. Do not “infect” with unbelief. Do not transmit it. “Woe to the world because of temptations, for temptations must come; but woe to that man through whom temptation comes,” the Lord testifies in the Gospel (Luke 17:1).

The Lord’s signs are inseparable from His call to discern those signs. In the Gospel, in times and years, in all kinds of historical, existential situations, this distinction has to operate. It occurs on a global and individual, and unique biographical level.

Just as in the Gospel the Lord healed Mary Magdalene, casting out seven demons from her, accompanied her on the path of despair, loss of faith and loneliness, in front of the empty tomb; as He saw Luke and Cleopas on the road to Emmaus, and did not allow them to be plunged into the abyss of despair… The Lord ate bread with his disciples; the Lord fed someone with bread; He and provided help in preparing His own Last Supper through a secret disciple who remained unnamed (cf. Matt. 26:18). Was it Joseph of Arimathea, or perhaps Nicodemus?

The Lord is always with His Church. The Lord overcomes the general unbelief and unbelief of everyone. On the day of memory of Saint Magdalene, it is important for us and the entire Church to remember when and under what circumstances the Risen Lord personally appeared to each of us.

Tradition calls Magdalene “the apostle of the apostles” because she announced the news of the Resurrection to the disciples of Christ. The memory of Mary Magdalene is also the Celebration of the Church about this personal conversion of each person to faith in Jesus Christ.

The Lord’s disciples and early Christians lived in anticipation of the imminent, inevitable Second Coming of the Lord. Therefore, almost no information about their works and earthly biographies has been preserved. One of the legends says that Mary Magdalene preached the good news in Ancient Gaul, in the south of modern France, where in our times the famous Cote d’Azur is located.

According to her life, she once even appeared before the Roman Emperor Tiberius (42 BC - 37 AD), preaching the Resurrection, and presented him with an egg as a gift. Since then, the red Easter egg has become one of the main symbols of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. For His Blood, the “Slain Lamb” (cf. Rev. 5:12), like a chicken killed inside, permeated the whole world with its Life-giving Power.