JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR DID NOT DO MARY
MAGDALENE’S SAUCY NOTORIETY ANY FAVOURS
by Richard Leonard |
Mary Magdalene should sue the Church for
defamation. Never mind her being the apostle to the Apostles on Easter Day,
since Tertullian in the third century her name has been synonymous with being a
prostitute.
Yet she is not like other women in the Gospels who have “a bad reputation in the town” or weep at Jesus’ feet and wipe their tears away with their hair, or are caught in the “very act of adultery” or pour oil over Jesus’ head.
The first that we hear of Mary Magdalene is that she has seven demons cast out of her by Jesus. We are not told what these demons are but, given what people wrongly thought at the time, they could have been a stomach complaint, acne or a twitch. There is no suggestion they were sexual demons.
Jesus Christ Superstar did not do Mary Magdalene’s saucy notoriety any favours by giving her the song of the show – “I don’t know how to love him”.
Curiously some brides want this song sung at their weddings, to which I reply: “If you don’t know, you shouldn’t be here.” And think of the rest of the song’s chorus:
“And I’ve had so many men before, in very many ways … he’s just one more.”
I don’t think that’s what we want to say at a Nuptial Mass!
The most important thing we know about Mary Magdalene is that in three of the four Gospels she is the first to experience the Risen Christ and is the first Christian missionary, the apostle to the Apostles.
Two details in John’s account are especially poignant. We are told that Mary encountered the Risen Christ while weeping outside Jesus’ tomb. She felt a double loss on that first Easter Sunday. Not only was she grieving for the loss of the one whom she had seen tortured to death, but she also wept for what she thought was the ultimate insult inflicted on Him – the desecration of his grave and the stealing of his corpse.
Mary Magdalene is the patron saint of all those of us who have ever stood at tombs and wept. She shows us that in the middle of any grief Christ comes to us and calls us by name. Because of Mary’s tears, and even more because of her evangelisation, we believe that there is not a human being who is not known to God by name.
Jesus tells Mary that his God and Father is now her God and Father. God makes no distinction between anyone; we are all called by name to share in his life according to the grace that enables us to do so. God not only knows our name; he knows our heart, our history, and our selves.
In the Easter accounts, Mary Magdalene is the first witness to the Resurrection. For us the word “witness” usually means someone who attests to the truth of events from personal experience and knowledge. The power of personal witness can hardly be exaggerated.
The same is true of Christian faith today. Belief in Jesus Christ as Saviour of the world might seem a good idea or an engaging concept. But the best witnesses have first-hand access to the truth.
They do not believe just in the idea of the Resurrection, but have had a personal encounter with the Risen Christ themselves, and are bold enough to proclaim and live it. This may be why in the early Church the word for “witness” and the word for “martyr” were one and the same. Anyone who was brave enough to publicly witness to the Resurrection at that time, could well end up giving his or her life for it.
Within a generation after Jesus’ death, people all over the Mediterranean world, most of whom had never seen Jesus, reported that they too had encountered the presence of the Risen Christ.
Jesus of Nazareth was not dead, but alive to them too and these same people not only believed in the Resurrection, but also were prepared to put their lives on the line for the person they had encountered.
Nothing has changed. This Easter we are called to be witnesses to Jesus, raised from the dead, and alive to us here and now. In our own way we are meant to put our bodies on the line for it.
Like Mary Magdalene, in our witness to Christ, we will have to pay a price for how we live and whom we challenge.
Richard Leonard SJ is the author of What are we hoping for? Reflections for Lent and Easter (Alban Books).
Yet she is not like other women in the Gospels who have “a bad reputation in the town” or weep at Jesus’ feet and wipe their tears away with their hair, or are caught in the “very act of adultery” or pour oil over Jesus’ head.
The first that we hear of Mary Magdalene is that she has seven demons cast out of her by Jesus. We are not told what these demons are but, given what people wrongly thought at the time, they could have been a stomach complaint, acne or a twitch. There is no suggestion they were sexual demons.
Jesus Christ Superstar did not do Mary Magdalene’s saucy notoriety any favours by giving her the song of the show – “I don’t know how to love him”.
Curiously some brides want this song sung at their weddings, to which I reply: “If you don’t know, you shouldn’t be here.” And think of the rest of the song’s chorus:
“And I’ve had so many men before, in very many ways … he’s just one more.”
I don’t think that’s what we want to say at a Nuptial Mass!
The most important thing we know about Mary Magdalene is that in three of the four Gospels she is the first to experience the Risen Christ and is the first Christian missionary, the apostle to the Apostles.
Two details in John’s account are especially poignant. We are told that Mary encountered the Risen Christ while weeping outside Jesus’ tomb. She felt a double loss on that first Easter Sunday. Not only was she grieving for the loss of the one whom she had seen tortured to death, but she also wept for what she thought was the ultimate insult inflicted on Him – the desecration of his grave and the stealing of his corpse.
Mary Magdalene is the patron saint of all those of us who have ever stood at tombs and wept. She shows us that in the middle of any grief Christ comes to us and calls us by name. Because of Mary’s tears, and even more because of her evangelisation, we believe that there is not a human being who is not known to God by name.
Jesus tells Mary that his God and Father is now her God and Father. God makes no distinction between anyone; we are all called by name to share in his life according to the grace that enables us to do so. God not only knows our name; he knows our heart, our history, and our selves.
In the Easter accounts, Mary Magdalene is the first witness to the Resurrection. For us the word “witness” usually means someone who attests to the truth of events from personal experience and knowledge. The power of personal witness can hardly be exaggerated.
The same is true of Christian faith today. Belief in Jesus Christ as Saviour of the world might seem a good idea or an engaging concept. But the best witnesses have first-hand access to the truth.
They do not believe just in the idea of the Resurrection, but have had a personal encounter with the Risen Christ themselves, and are bold enough to proclaim and live it. This may be why in the early Church the word for “witness” and the word for “martyr” were one and the same. Anyone who was brave enough to publicly witness to the Resurrection at that time, could well end up giving his or her life for it.
Within a generation after Jesus’ death, people all over the Mediterranean world, most of whom had never seen Jesus, reported that they too had encountered the presence of the Risen Christ.
Jesus of Nazareth was not dead, but alive to them too and these same people not only believed in the Resurrection, but also were prepared to put their lives on the line for the person they had encountered.
Nothing has changed. This Easter we are called to be witnesses to Jesus, raised from the dead, and alive to us here and now. In our own way we are meant to put our bodies on the line for it.
Like Mary Magdalene, in our witness to Christ, we will have to pay a price for how we live and whom we challenge.
Richard Leonard SJ is the author of What are we hoping for? Reflections for Lent and Easter (Alban Books).
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