Except for the mother of Jesus, few women are more honored in the
Bible than Mary Magdalene. Yet she could well be the patron of the slandered, since there
has been a persistent legend in the Church that she is the unnamed
sinful woman who anointed the feet of Jesus in Luke 7:36-50.
Father Wilfrid J. Harrington, O.P., writing in the New Catholic Commentary, says that “seven demons” “does not mean that Mary had lived an immoral life—a conclusion reached only by means of a mistaken identification with the anonymous woman of Luke 7:36.” Father Edward Mally, S.J., writing in theJerome Biblical Commentary, agrees that she “is not...the same as the sinner of Luke 7:37, despite the later Western romantic tradition about her.”
Mary Magdalene was one of the many “who were assisting them [Jesus and the Twelve] out of their means.” She was one of those who stood by the cross of Jesus with his mother. And, of all the “official” witnesses that might have been chosen for the first awareness of the Resurrection, she was the one to whom that privilege was given. She is known as the "Apostle to the Apostles."
Mary Magdalene has been a victim of mistaken identity for almost
20 centuries. Yet she would no doubt insist that it makes no difference. We are
all sinners in need of the saving power of God, whether our sins have been
lurid or not. More importantly, we are all, with her, “unofficial” witnesses of
the Resurrection.
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