Mary!
Mary fascinates me, especially her portrayal in Jesus Christ, Superstar, singing "I don't know how to love him" with lines "he's just a man" and concluding "I want him so, I love him so".
This morning, on her day, trying to find something commonly human, as in fact she would have been, without a halo and not gazing piously at the sky but maybe adoringly at Jesus, I scrolled through the Web Gallery of Art and found depictions of her varying from pious to almost lurid. In the painting above, eg, she seems to be wearing nothing but hair, and there's that jar of perfumed ointment, placing her biblically as the woman at Luke 7:36-50.
My favorite is on the cover of Bruce Chilton's biography of her. I'll have to go back to the gallery and identify that one. Chilton's a chaired professor at Bard College and an Episcopal priest, and after reading, also this morning, a HuffPost article by him, I'm tempted to trust him and order a used six dollar hard copy of the book. Below, Caravaggio, 1596-97, though I'm not intending to identify the others, they came mostly from the Web Gallery and about the same period.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mary-magdalene_b_898439
From Chilton, I appreciated the assertion in his HuffPost essay, "History is also a form of imagination" as an absolute truth that doesn't occur to everyone.
Magdalene, or Magdalen, which I've heard in British English pronounce "Maudlin" [late Middle English (as a noun denoting Mary Magdalen): from Old French Madeleine, from Church Latin Magdalena (see magdalene). The current sense derives from allusion to pictures of Mary Magdalen weeping],
appeals to me as not just one of Jesus' many followers, but because of her noticeable mention, singled out by name in the gospels, including Friday at the Cross and Easter morning alone at the Tomb mistaking Him for the gardener (why else would he be carrying the shovel?). I visualize Mary as not just a follower but as much more, as do many others.
As more than just a pretty face, to Jesus, heart, soul, body and mind; make of it what you will. Either the Logos, Second Person of the Trinity, was True Man, or He was not.
Anyway, it's Mary's day,
and in we're entitled to enjoy it with her.
Below, our BCP collect for her day, and two of the prescribed lectionary readings. The reading from John is apt, but the reading from Judith is absurd.
Saint Mary Magdalene July 22
Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalen to health of body and of mind, and called her to be a witness of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by your grace we may be healed from all our infirmities and know you in the power of his unending life; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
I found it: Giovanni Bellini 1430-1516 Venice
I found it: Giovanni Bellini 1430-1516 Venice
Judith 9:1, 11-14
2 Corinthians 5:14-18
2 Corinthians 5:14-18
John 20:11-18
Judith 9:1, 11-14
Judith 9:1, 11-14
1] Judith fell upon her face, and put ashes upon her head, and uncovered the sackcloth wherewith she was clothed; and about the time that the incense of that evening was offered in Jerusalem in the house of the Lord Judith cried with a loud voice, and said,
[11] For thy power standeth not in multitude nor thy might in strong men: for thou art a God of the afflicted, an helper of the oppressed, an upholder of the weak, a protector of the forlorn, a saviour of them that are without hope.
[12] I pray thee, I pray thee, O God of my father, and God of the inheritance of Israel, Lord of the heavens and earth, Creator of the waters, king of every creature, hear thou my prayer:
[13] And make my speech and deceit to be their wound and stripe, who have purposed cruel things against thy covenant, and thy hallowed house, and against the top of Sion, and against the house of the possession of thy children.
[14] And make every nation and tribe to acknowledge that thou art the God of all power and might, and that there is none other that protecteth the people of Israel but thou.
John 20:11-18 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rab-bo′ni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” 18 Mary Mag′dalene went and said to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.