Mary The Tower

and what we've missed out on

I didn’t preach this week, because I took a couple of days off and had a sub for the weekly service. But I had the opportunity to throw a little feast day celebration for St. Mary Magdalene, and shared some recent scholarship about her with a great group of my residents.

I asked how many of them had heard Mary described as a prostitute, and it seemed like all of them raised their hands. I shared the wild fact that the roots of this rumor come from a homily in 591 CE from Pope Gregory, who mixed up Mary Magdalene (who Jesus had healed of seven demons) with a “sinful woman” who had anointed Jesus’ feet with her tears.

It’s admittedly wild that one homily in the 6th century could have such long-lasting ramifications, but so it did. The Church finally officially corrected the rumors in 1969, and in 2016 Pope Francis gave her a feast day and named her “Apostle of the Apostles.”

And if this is news to you, then do take a deep breath, because recent scholarship shows that Mary’s story had been edited in a very early copy of the Gospel of John in a way that de-emphasized her importance in Jesus’ (and the Church’s) story. This is hard to explain, but you can watch Diana Butler Bass present it all passionately here, from when she preached about it at the Wild Goose Festival, back in 2022. It’s 40 minutes long but a wild ride and I definitely recommend it.

After presenting this truly compelling information about Mary, Diana asks the crowd to consider… why has this story been hidden from us for so long? How might our Church have been different with Mary Magdalene in her true place from the beginning? What effect could it have had on all of us to have heard Mary Magdalene’s true voice all these years?

The women of Proclaim love Mary, of course, and we what’s-apped feast day greetings with each other this week, some of us sharing preachings, and with each message I thought “I wish everyone could see/hear this!” It grieves me that this Church eschews opportunities for Her people to hear the voices of women.

I’ve heard women preach and I know. When we only hear men preach the story of Jesus, we’re missing a lot of the story — and it’s a good good story!

So, although I have no hermily to share this week, I share this: a sincere prayer that this Church will allow women like Mary their rightful place in leadership, in truth, and in sharing the Good News, and that for you, dear reader, the gift of listening to women preach will come soon and often.