Mary Magdalene
The Catholic Church celebrates the saints by naming a day for the most prominent ones. Today is the feastday of Mary Magdalene. What the Church has taught through the years about Mary Magdalene deeply disturbs me. Mary was a woman of some means who helped support Jesus’ ministry. Since the sixth century, however, she has been identified as a repentant prostitute, one whose physical touch would have stained Jesus’ glorified body following his resurrection (see John 20:17). (Yes, I was taught this in graduate school.)
There are teachings from institutions and figures of authority that deserve to be thrown away. Perhaps they are promulgated to control, to keep underfoot, to humiliate. Perhaps they are taught out of misguided but well-meaning intentions. But if they hurt us, if they disturb us, if they continue to bother, bug, and infuriate us, perhaps God is nudging us to question or examine them further?
One such teaching, for me, is the prohibition against women as priests in the Roman Catholic Church. I love the Catholic Church. Its theology, its saints, its vocations of priest, deacon, and religious, its sacraments all participate in telling us something of this magnificent God in whose image and likeness we are made. But, just as error in the Church does not and should not cast doubt on all its beautiful and truth-revealing teachings, nor can its possession of such wonderful truth promise an absence of error.
Mary Magdalene has come to symbolize, for me, the tenacity of truth. She walked beside Jesus of Nazareth. She was treated as an equal by him. She supported him. Her truth has won out. Who she was will survive despite these efforts to tarnish her.
Reflection
What teachings bother you? Might God be asking you to look deeper into these either for your own personal growth or for the collective recognition among the faithful of a teaching that needs modifcation or outright change?
Prayer
Dear God, help me to accept the fact that I can question authority. Help me to do this with humility and grace. Help me to distinguish between my own personal need for growth or maturity where such teachings are concerned and a real need for change or modification. Guide me, Lord, as I try to sharpen my ability to see you, hear you, and follow you. Amen.