Mary and Jesus

Eva-Maria

Mary Magdalene, a true disciple --

I often have asked myself why that elusive woman, Mary Magdalene, according to the Gospel of John 20:11-18, was the first witness of the risen Savior? I feel this extraordinary experience must have grown out of a defining quality of her character, a love for Love, which in its purest state reflected a powerful spiritual love for her Master Teacher, Christ Jesus.

We feel for her when we envision a scene related in Luke 7:37-50: With tears flowing, in meekness Mary stands silently.  Simon the host forgot to give due respect to his honored guest, Jesus of Nazareth. But Jesus “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), is not offended, for he loves the Pharisee as he loves those who, cold of heart, leave love behind, as does Judas, the moral dwarf of deceptive mien.  But Mary, he loves as she loves him; with a love so profound that he taught her on sacred ground that Love is Life!

But do we really know who this woman was?

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, eloquently observed: “Love that is Life - is sure and steadfast.  … the true sense of being goes on.

 Doing unto others as we would that they do by us, is immortality's self.  Intrepid, self-oblivious love fulfils the law and is self-sustaining and eternal” (Miscellany, 275).  Eddy could not have known the full story of Mary Magdalene, because at the time she wrote her masterpiece Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (published in 1875), some of the newly discovered Scriptural manuscripts (1896), were stored away in archeological archives in Germany, and not yet translated from the original texts, until published in 1955.   However, in her intuitive wisdom, she put the Biblical account of Mary in Science and Health, at the beginning of the chapter on the Christian Science Practice: How a woman uninvited entered, and how Jesus regarded her compassionately, with divine insight and ineffable affection, and she, reverent, contrite, expressing meekness and love.  The question is posed, “…was her grief sufficient evidence to warrant the expectation of her repentance, reformation, and growth in wisdom?  Certainly… ” (363).  Jesus’ wise thoughts and kind words bring comfort and healing from the indivisible presence of an all-powerful divine Love.  Eddy introduces thus the Christ-principle of Mind-Healing.

To gain a better understanding of the spiritual stature of Mary Magdalene, I researched Eddy’s writings, the Gospels of Luke and John, and Harvard scholar Karen King’s Women In Ancient Christianity: The New Discoveries--neglected texts and new findings, concerning women's important role in early Christianity.  In Eastern Orthodox churches, Mary Magdalene is not seen as a penitent, but instead as a woman who lived a decent life even before she followed Jesus.   King wrote: “Chief among these is Mary Magdalene, a woman infamous in Western Christianity as an adulteress and repentant whore.  Discoveries of new texts from the dry sands of Egypt, along with sharpened critical insight, have now proven that this portrait of Mary is entirely inaccurate.”

These 19th and 20th century discoveries of Christian texts go back to the second and third century—and they brought new information to light.  From the Bible we know that Mary, a Jewish woman, accompanied Jesus on his journeys and supported his ministry, (see Luke 8:1-3).  The new findings show Mary as a favored disciple, a prominent member of Jesus’ inner circle, and the only woman named.  In response to an especially insightful question, Jesus says of her, “You make clear the abundance of the revealer!” (Dialogue of the Savior, 140 17-19.) 

In the Gospel of John, the risen Jesus explains his teaching to her, and then sends her as an apostle to the apostles to bring the good news. And thus she also is the first to announce the resurrection.  In addition, a perusal of Jean-Yves Leloup’s translation of The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, reveals: “Mary’s identity as a prostitute stems from Homily 33 of Pope Gregory I, delivered in the year 591, in which he declared that she and the unnamed woman in Luke 7 are, … one and the same, and that the faithful should hold Mary as the penitent whore. …In fact, there is no direct reference to [a sinful woman]—or to Mary—as a prostitute anywhere in the Gospels.

“The Gospel of Mary offers the modern man and woman a new insight into the immensity of Christianity and the figure of Jesus. … Mary was considered as the foremost among the women who followed Jesus … the post-Resurrection time is one of decisive revelation, which included his communication of the mission given the disciples before his final departure” (v, xiv, xv, 8, 9).

In Science and Health (54), it says, “Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, [Jesus] defined Love.” Thus he lived and taught the healing Christ—the eternal Comforter or divine Science.  When the Comforter is more than a phrase but the very truth of Love to us, it heals our fears, including lack and despair.  Jesus healed Mary of those crucifying matter notions.  And she, in her fearless love for him, was first and last at the cross, and first at his tomb to witness the key event in Christianity -- the Resurrection – Christ Jesus’ highest proof of Love that is Life.

In the end, it should not even matter whether Mary of Magdala had once been by reputation a disreputable person, whether she was in fact the woman in Luke 7.  After her transformation her innate spirituality and apostolic power Jesus himself acknowledged.  And why let society, especially that of a remoter time, be a foolish judge?

 –Eva-Maria Hogrefe, C. S.

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain.

-Emily Dickinson—

                        The bird of hope is singing,

                                A lightsome lay, a cooing call,

                                And in her heart is beating

                                A love for all—

                                "'Tis peace not power I seek,

                                'Tis meet that man be meek."

--Mary Baker Eddy

The Mother Church in Boston

To understand everything is to forgive everything 

 --French proverb--

Switzerland

a stormy Boston sky...

MARY OF MAGDALA  

With tears flowing, in meekness Mary stands

Silently, face covered with her hands.

Strange, Simon the host—firm and stout,

Fails to give due respect

To his honored guest, Jesus of Nazareth,

Who “full of grace and truth,”*

Not offended, loves the Pharisee as he loves

Those who cold of heart leave love behind,

As Judas did, the moral dwarf of deceptive mien.

But Mary Magdalene, he loves

As she loves him; with a love profound

He teaches her on sacred ground

That Love is Life—(O heavenly sound!)

Mary’s love-filled devotion found

An unconditional love in him,

Which long she had anticipated—

For her to meet true love was fated.

“Sit down and hear what I have to say:

From you who have been sorely tried,

Doubt and fear will swiftly fly,

And brief will be your grief.

Trust well and love serenely,

Embrace a matter-free thought keenly,

And follow me to find the faculty

Of spiritual perception, that healing path

Called Resurrection!”

She, bearing witness to his truth, replies:

“I will not fear the darkest night,

Beloved, dearest Master!”

Forgotten were mind’s sore vexations

As morning turning bright before her eyes,

Mary, most pure of heart, not shrinking,

Beholds first the risen Christ—

He, who loved her holy, who did not blink,

Nor judge, but recognized

A love-sustaining spirituality

Within her humble soul confined.

Weeping, she hears one calling, “Mary!

Tell me: Whose shape, dearest, do you see?”

“Rabboni! From heaven’s splendid fold, clearly

I see your Christly form appearing warm, not cold.”

Upwards bend, as a bird soaring into the sky’s vaults,

The spiritual flight of thought goes on within

Love’s liberating Mind—and never halts!

*   John 1:14

--eva-maria hogrefe--

with love

Eva-Maria