Feast Day of St. Mary, the Magdalene

Jesus says to Mary Magdalene, "Stop touching me for I have not yet ascended to the father." (John 20: 17). How womanly and tender Mary Magdalene's response to the resurrected Jesus. Did she touch his feet in a sign of respect for her teacher, as the passage is traditionally understood? Or did she embrace him as a beloved friend and companion?

It had been every early that morning and still dark when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb where the body of Jesus had been lain. Seeing that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, she immediately goes to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved to tell them what had happened. Simon Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb, and Simon Peter goes into and sees the linen cloths lying on the ground. Mary remains outside weeping and, as she weeps, she looks inside and sees two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lain. They address her asking, "Woman, why are you weeping? "They have taken my Lord away, she replies, "and I don't know where they have put him." Then turning around Mary sees Jesus standing there but she mistakes him for the gardener and she queries him, too, "Tell me where you have put him?" Jesus then says, "Mary. "Rabbouni," she exclaims--and she totouchesuched him.

Certainly, Jesus loves Mary Magdalene and the other women who accompanied him in his earthly life. In all four Gospels the women who went to the tomb were the first witnesses of the resurrected Jesus. In the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene is singled out as sole first witness of the resurrected Jesus. Jesus does not even appear to Simon Peter and the other disciple who are presumably in the tomb a few feet away, but instead tells Mary to tell his disciples that she has seen him. The bond between Jesus and the Magdalene is extraordinary. She was healed by him. Together with others, she attended to his needs and was a companion on his journeys. Her going to the tomb before the break of dawn, her weeping outside the tomb, and her reaching out to Jesus upon seeing him again, speak of the immediacy of her love and concern for him.

The Rev. Dr. Rosemarie Anderson