Mary Magdalene: The Forgotten Saint

by Letters Editor · February 10, 2010

Pat Dacey, Johannesburg: Mary Magdalene has become the forgotten saint in the modern era, yet she epitomises all that the ultimate Christian stands for: love, loyalty and courage.

All four versions of the Gospel of Christ record Mary Magdalene as one of the handful of people to witness the last three stages of Jesus life: the crucifixion, the laying of Jesus in the tomb, and she was the first of Jesus followers to arrive at the empty tomb. She is always the first to be mentioned.

Though conjecture, it is quite plausible that Mary Magdalene loved Jesus with a love greater than that of any of his contemporaries.

She was no family of Jesus, so her love can be attributed to that which God ordained as being the love which binds men and women together in lifelong partnerships.

May we deduce that the love Jesus purportedly had for us was really the love he had for a woman? This possibility gives credence to the Creators plan for humankind. In Jesus own words: from the beginning of Creation God made them male and female (Mark 10:6).

In displaying Gods forgiveness for mankind, Jesus plays out a human drama in loving a woman who has repeatedly been portrayed as having lived in sinful ways, thus breaking through the bond of stigma which through the centuries, even until today, is a constant yoke around societys neck.

The Christmas story of Mary giving birth to her baby in a manger is a lovely prelude to the life of Jesus, but the origin of Christianity sprang from treachery and tragedy, with love as its central theme.