What was Mary Magdalene thinking?

What Was Mary Magdalene Thinking?

 

I wonder what Mary Magdalene was thinking when:

In The Gospel of Mary, the disciples are frightened and perplexed and Peter asks her to tell them the revelations that she knows, because (in the Greek version) “the Savior loved her more than any other woman.” As she comforts them and explains the secrets that Jesus told her, Peter himself (why would he ask, if later he would doubt?) along with Andrew, question and doubt her knowledge. Peter’s objection explicitly entails regard for Mary’s gender. In the Greek version he questions why Jesus would tell secrets to a woman that he did not speak aloud to the others. Levi interjects. He chastises Peter for his hostility and then defends Mary’s authority to speak with the claim that Jesus, “knew her completely [hmmm…what does that mean?] (and) loved her devotedly.” (parentheses mine).  In the Coptic version Peter asks, “Are we to turn and listen to her?” Levi responds that the Savior “loved her more than us.”

In Chapter 9 of the Gospel we are then told that, “Mary wept,” and said to Peter, “My brother Peter, what do you think? Do you think that I have thought this up myself in my heart, or that I am lying about the Savior?”

Why did Mary weep? The Gospel doesn’t say. Perhaps she wept because in speaking about her beloved Lord and friend her grief was renewed and she missed him and the sorrow welled up within her. Perhaps she wept because her “brother” Peter who had been with her throughout the discipleship was now questioning her integrity. She, loyal and trustworthy friend, who despite the danger and certain fear, remained with Jesus at the time of his death, at the foot of the cross (while the others abandoned) and was the first at the tomb.

Does it occur to anyone else to find a bitter irony in this? That the one who stood in defiance; the one who doubted her word and challenged her authority to speak was the very one who the Gospels say slept when his friend needed for him to “watch,” denied Jesus three times and in cowardice fled from his friend’s last moments on earth? Perhaps Mary thought of all these things but considered them too unkind or painful to mention. Perhaps she bit the inside of her lip. Yes, perhaps she bit her lip. And that was why she wept.

If the saints and angels can look down upon us and watch the follies of human speech and action, I wonder what Mary Magdalene was thinking when Pope Gregory (the Great), in the 6th century identified her as the same woman (of dubious sexual reputation) who washed Jesus feet with perfumed oil and wiped them with her hair. (By the way… not ALL the “historical” information in The DaVinci Code is false. This “fact” happens to be true. Pope Gregory really did start the slander). And there is no reasonable foundation for doing so. There is no scriptural evidence for identifying Mary Magdalene as the “prostitute.” But this is what happens when women are of so little consequence that identifying them by name isn’t important. There is this danger that future generations (even Popes!) will get them mixed up, intentionally or unintentionally. The story of “the anointing” is told in all four canonical Gospels. In the Markan account Jesus comments on the woman’s action by saying, “Wherever the Gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of HER.” (emphasis mine). And yet, we do not even know her name.

 

Indeed, that Mary was identified by her place of origin is simply another piece of evidence that points to her importance to the early Christian communities. Everyone knew who she was simply by saying she was the Mary “from Magdala.”  And when she is not so identified, chances are that the woman in question is NOT her.

 

I wonder what Mary would think now that she is such a hot topic of conversation.

I wonder what Mary would think to know that people are so upset over the possibility that she and Jesus might have been lovers, spouses. Why are the conversations always about her sexuality? This woman was an apostle, a disciple, a close companion of Jesus and primary in the company of those who were first to proclaim a resurrection. I wonder what Mary was thinking when Saint Paul counted himself among the Apostles (even though he had never met Jesus in the flesh) by pointing to the following criteria; that he had a “post-resurrection” encounter and that he was commissioned to tell others. Considering Saint Paul’s own criteria for apostleship, Mary fits the bill and yet she is not even identified by him in his list of those who had the experience let alone given the same distinction that he would give to himself.

 

I wonder what Mary Magdalene would think about all the medieval art that identifies her with one object, the jar; the jar that supposedly held the oil with which she presumably anointed Jesus. That single object, in hundreds perhaps thousands of paintings (and if you let Medieval artists tell it, she carried the damn jar around with her everywhere) identifies the figure as Mary Magdalene and it is based upon a scandalous lie, a “mistake,” and a centuries’ long error. Hey, wait a minute. Do you think? Just maybe? There could be others? 

 

I wonder what Mary was thinking if she overheard this conversation as recounted in the Gospel of Philip, (my favorite passage about Mary Magdalene from all the Gospels):

 

And the companion of the [...] Mary Magdalene. [...] loved her more than all the disciples, and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples [...]. They said to him "Why do you love her more than all of us?" The Savior answered and said to them, “Why do I not love you like her?”

 

She might have thought, "So like Jesus, to answer a question with a question. So like the rest of the disciples to be so petty."

And I think she might have smiled.