Today the Church celebrates the saint who scripture tells us was the first first to witness the empty tomb, the first to see the risen Christ (Jn. 20). And yet when we say the name that is not the first thing we think. For far too many Christians the first thought is prostitute. The saint is Mary Magdalene.
There is NOTHING in the Bible that says she was a prostitute.
As best we can find, somewhere in the Middle Ages people began to mix up the story of Mary Magdalene and the sinful woman of Luke 7. What is even more interesting is that the Bible never says what the sin of the woman in Luke 7 was. Perhaps it says more about us than her that in our minds we turn “sinful woman” into “prostitute.” Greek had plenty of words for sexual sin but that is not what St. Luke says. The word he uses is much more generic it literally means someone who has missed the mark. Why do we jump to the conclusion that if a woman committed a sin it had to be fornication or prostitution? Is that the only sin a woman could commit?
This past week I traveled back to my home town and was reminded of how flawed human memory is. Many things were not as I remembered – not because they had changed but because I did not remember accurately.
A part of the human condition is the falability of human memory, and as Shakespeare reminds us, another part of the human condition is our fascination with sin. Whether it is the temptations we personally experience or stories of the sins of us, we find ourselves drawn in. Good is boring but sin is interesting, even if it’s made up.
In 1969 the Church did what it could to try and uncouple Mary Magdalene from the woman in Luke 7, but like many good things, that news never made it to the world at large. Today let us remember and acclaim St. Mary Magdalene for what scripture says she actually did, and not for what we think she did.
