If there is one woman who has been misidentified in sacred scripture it is Mary Magdalene. This woman’s name and reputation has been dragged through the mud and portrayed in art as a harlot and a seductress converted by Christ. There are many women named Mary in the Bible as well as many unnamed women that have been confused with this Mary from the town of Magdala. To be clear, Mary of Magdala is NOT the woman who poured oil on Jesus’ feet and washed her hair in the oil and her tears. She is also NOT the woman caught in adultery who was about to be stoned and that Jesus saved. She is seen with Mary of Bethany (sister of Martha and Lazarus) and Mary the Mother of Jesus but she is not to be confused with them. There are so many myths and legends about this woman, who she was to Jesus, and how she was seemingly pushed to the side in the history of the Church. But the Church has not forgotten her. The Church has not forgotten the woman that appears in all four Gospels as the one to recognize the world would change again. It may have taken hundreds of years, but Mary Magdalene has been redeemed by her Redeemer. If Mary, Mother of Jesus is considered to be the Queen of the Apostles, Mary, disciple from Magdala, is considered by the Catholic Church to be the Apostle to the Apostles.

I feel like Mary of Magdala sometimes. I can be misunderstood and my words can be heard, taken, and used as someone else’s to rise up into power. I have been accused of being too feminine, too outspoken, and too dangerous. My reputation has been tarnished before by jealousy, hatred, and fear. I have had demons. Jesus has helped me release those demons, and I chose to follow Him because of the many times, when I have been so lost and so full of demons, He rescues me and saves me from my own torture. This is why Mary of Magdala is my patron saint and it is why she speaks to my heart in these days directly after Easter. She knows and understands what it is like to be a leader within a patriarchal society and to stay by the side of the one she loves until the end, no matter how much fear and pain it causes. I know demons. Trust me. If Jesus encountered Mary in her worst moment of demons, he saw the very worst of her. I know this is what kept her glued to that cross as the other disciples dispersed and hid. If Jesus stuck with her in the worst day of her life, she would support him in his torture and death.
So what might Pope Francis have to say about Mary of Magdala and the women of the Church? 

“Two women who did not run away, who remained steadfast, who faced life as it is and who knew the bitter taste of injustice. We see them there, before the tomb, filled with grief but equally incapable of accepting that things must always end this way. If we try to imagine this scene, we can see in the faces of those women any number of other faces: the faces of mothers and grandmothers, of children and young people who bear the grievous burden of injustice and brutality. In their faces we can see reflected all those who, walking the streets of our cities, feel the pain of dire poverty, the sorrow born of exploitation and human trafficking. We can also see the faces of those who are greeted with contempt because they are immigrants, deprived of country, house and family. We see faces whose eyes bespeak loneliness and abandonment, because their hands are creased with wrinkles. Their faces mirror the faces of women, mothers, who weep as they see the lives of their children crushed by massive corruption that strips them of their rights and shatters their dreams. By daily acts of selfishness that crucify and then bury people’s hopes. By paralyzing and barren bureaucracies that stand in the way of change. In their grief, those two women reflect the faces of all those who, walking the streets of our cities, behold human dignity crucified.” (4/15/17) 
 
“The women went to Jesus’ tomb with aromatic oils. The first to arrive was Mary Magdalene. She was one of the disciples who had accompanied Jesus from Galilee, putting herself at the service of the burgeoning Church. Her walk to the sepulcher mirrors the fidelity of many women who spend years in the small alleyways of cemeteries remembering someone who is no longer there. The most authentic bonds are not broken even in death: there are those who continue loving even if their loved one is gone forever.” (5/17/17) 

“When women have the opportunity to fully pass on their gifts to the entire community, the very manner by which society is understood and organized becomes positively transformed by it, managing to better reflect the substantial unity of the human family…The growing presence of women in the social, economic and political life at local, national and international levels, as well as the ecclesial, therefore, is a healthy process. Women have the full right to be actively included in all areas, and their right must be affirmed and protected, even through legal instruments wherever it may be necessary.” (6/9/17) 

“Women are engaged, often more than men, at the level of the “dialogue of life” in the interreligious sphere, and thus contribute to a better understanding of the challenges typical of a multicultural reality. But women are also able to fully integrate in exchanges at the level of religious experience, as well as in those at the theological level. Many women are well prepared to take on encounters of interreligious dialogue at the highest levels and not only on the Catholic side. This means that women’s contribution must not be limited to “feminine” topics or to encounters only among women. Dialogue is a journey that men and women must undertake together. Today more than ever, it is necessary that women be present. Women, possessing particular traits, can offer an important contribution to dialogue with their capacity to listen, to welcome and to open themselves generously to others. (6/9/17) 
“In communities where we are still weighed down with patriarchal and chauvinistic customs, it is good to note that the Gospel begins by highlighting women who were influential and made history. (9/8/17)

I found these beautiful Pope Francis quotes and many others in Selected Quotes of Pope Francis by Subject.

So my final question is this: Why did Mary of Magdala think Jesus was the gardener in John’s Gospel? Well...interesting stuff. John begins his Gospel in the same way Genesis begins. “In the beginning…” John wants to identify his Gospel, from the very beginning, within the context of Genesis. The garden reference comes from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The gardener is God, the garden is a new earth, Mary of Magdala is the New Eve and Jesus is the New Adam. John’s Gospel is the only one to make this reference but it brings Mary’s purpose at the tomb to a new level. This could possibly be the reason for all of the confusion and conundrum over their relationship beyond scripture. I’m sure there is more to the story but I’m willing to let that part be a mystery until I can ask in person.

Saint Mary Magdalene, pray for us!