Her feast, today, is a good day to reflect on her role in the mission of Christ. Her title, Apostle to the Apostles is an apt one, as is the egg which she is depicted holding in many icons, especially modern ones. This icon from Holy Dormition Orthodox Parish in Rhode Island is a favorite, as is this one by Robert Lentz.
I checked my few religious cookbooks for a Mary of Magdala recipe today. Alas, in vain. I suppose an egg dish of sorts would be appropriate. Maybe with some asparagus.
I don’t know if onions have any connection to Mary, but these onion-skin-colored eggs are neat, aren’t they? I wonder what would happen if I used shallot skins. I may find out tonight.
Let’s remember Jesus’ admonition to today’s apostle:
“Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
22 July 2008 at 2:01 pm
I can’t help but think of St. Mary saying, in those icons, “Now, watch this egg closely…” as she begins some feat of legerdemain.
22 July 2008 at 4:01 pm
I posted this (by Sr. Joan Chittister)at ConcordPastor’s blog today.
Hope it’s not too long for this combox.
THE FRIENDSHIP FACTOR
Friendship is the linking of spirits. It is a spiritual act, not a social one. It is the finding of the remainder of the self. It is knowing a person before you meet her. It might be that we not so much find a friend but that friendship, the deathless search of the soul for itself, finds us. Then the memory of Mary Magdalene becomes clear, becomes the bellwether of the real relationship.
Feastday of Mary Magdalene, July 22
Mary Magdalene is the woman whom scripture calls by name in a time when women were seldom named in public documents at all. She is, in fact, named fourteen times—more than any other woman in the New Testament except Mary of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus. She is clearly very important, and apparently a wealthy woman. Most of all, she understood who Jesus was long before anyone else did and she supported him in his wild, free-ranging revolutionary approach to life and state and temple. She was, it seems, the leader of a group of women who “supported Jesus out of their own resources.” And she never left his side for the rest of his life.
She was there at the beginning of his ministry. And she was there at the end. She was there when they were following him in cheering throngs. And she was there when they were taking his entire life, dashing it against the stones of temple and state, turning on him, jeering at him, shouting for his death, standing by while soldiers poked and prodded him to ignominy. She tended his grave and shouted his dying glory and clung to his soul. She knew him and she did not flinch from the knowing.
The Magdalene factor in friendship is the ability to know everything there is to know about a person, to celebrate their fortunes, to weather their straits, to chance their enemies, to accompany them in their pain and to be faithful to the end, whatever its glory, whatever its grief. The Magdalene factor is intimacy, the unshakeable immersion in the life of the other to the point of ecstasy, to the depths of hell.
The Magdalene factor in friendship is what distinguishes those who walk with us through the shallows of life from those who take the soundings of our soul and follow us into the depths of them.