St. Mary Magdalene

Summary

Podcast Summary: Catholic Saints – Episode on St. Mary Magdalene

Title: St. Mary Magdalene
Host: Augustine Institute
Release Date: July 22, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of Catholic Saints, hosted by the Augustine Institute, Taylor Kemp and Dr. Ben Akers delve into the life and significance of St. Mary Magdalene. The conversation explores her role in the Gospels, her identity, and the profound impact she has on Christian faith and practice.

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Understanding St. Mary Magdalene

Dr. Ben Akers opens the discussion by expressing his admiration for St. Mary Magdalene, mentioning personal connections such as naming his daughter Marie Madeleine. He highlights the recent elevation of her commemoration from an optional memorial to a full feast day on July 22nd, emphasizing her importance within the Catholic tradition.

“Her feast day was raised from an optional memorial to a feast day. So it's full on feast day.”
— Dr. Ben Akers (04:03)

Taylor Kemp concurs, noting Mary Magdalene's widespread recognition among the faithful.

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Biblical Foundations and Identity

The conversation delves into the scriptural portrayal of Mary Magdalene, primarily focusing on her appearances in the Gospels of Luke and John. Dr. Akers references Luke 7 and Luke 8, where Mary is depicted as a sinner who anoints Jesus' feet, highlighting her deep devotion and recognition of Jesus as the bearer of the Gospel.

“She's at the feet of Christ, and Martha tries to bring Jesus into a family dispute... Mary has chosen the better part.”
— Dr. Ben Akers (13:29)

Taylor Kemp adds insight into Mary Magdalene's boldness and unwavering commitment to Jesus, reflecting on her actions as an admirable model of faith.

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Theories on Her Identity

Dr. Akers presents several theories regarding Mary Magdalene's identity:

1. Mary of Magdala: Named after her hometown, Magdala, located on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee.
2. Prostitute Interpretation: Based on a Jewish rabbinical comment in the Talmud, suggesting a euphemistic reference.
3. Mary the Great or Magnificent: Deriving from the Aramaic title meaning great.

He further explores the possibility that Mary Magdalene is the same individual as Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus, by analyzing her consistent portrayal at the feet of Christ in different Gospel accounts.

“Mary Magdalene is listed here as one of the people that have followed Christ...”
— Dr. Ben Akers (07:36)

Taylor Kemp introduces Bram Petrie's argument from his book Introduction to the Spiritual Life, which connects Mary Magdalene's actions to contemplative prayer, enhancing the discussion on her identity.

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Mary Magdalene's Role in the Resurrection Narrative

A significant portion of the episode focuses on Mary Magdalene's pivotal role during and after the Crucifixion of Jesus. Dr. Akers narrates how Mary anoints Jesus with costly ointment, an act foreshadowing His impending Passion and Resurrection. He emphasizes her presence at the tomb on Easter morning, where she becomes the first witness to the Resurrection, earning her the title "Apostle to the Apostles."

“She's the one now running, and her feet are now blessed as the one who runs to tell the good news. And we have the beautiful title of Mary called the Apostle to the apostles...”
— Dr. Ben Akers (19:21)

Taylor Kemp reflects on Mary Magdalene as an exemplar of mission flowing from identity—highlighting her closeness to Christ and her subsequent mission to spread the Gospel.

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Main Takeaways and Reflections

Towards the end of the episode, Dr. Akers outlines key lessons drawn from Mary Magdalene's life:

1. Stay Close to Christ: Emulating Mary’s dedication by remaining near Jesus through prayer, the Eucharist, and Mass.
2. Seek Forgiveness: Just as Mary was delivered from seven demons, asking for intercession for those oppressed or seeking liberation.
3. Embrace Repentance: Recognizing and accepting God’s mercy as transformative good news.

Taylor Kemp adds that Mary Magdalene serves as a powerful model for living out the Gospel, urging listeners to embody her commitment and love for Christ in their own lives.

“When we're close to Christ, we sit at his feet, we receive his life, we receive his teaching... Mary’s a great example of that.”
— Taylor Kemp (19:47)

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with a heartfelt acknowledgment of Mary Magdalene's enduring legacy and her vital role in the foundation of the Christian faith. Her unwavering devotion and her role as the first witness to the Resurrection continue to inspire and guide believers in their spiritual journeys.

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Notable Quotes:

• “They are our older brothers and sisters in Christ alive in Christ in heaven.”
  — Dr. Ben Akers (00:28)

• “Mary Magdalene is listed here as one of the people that have followed Christ...”
  — Dr. Ben Akers (07:36)

• “She's the one now running, and her feet are now blessed as the one who runs to tell the good news.”
  — Dr. Ben Akers (19:21)

• “Mary’s a great example of that.”
  — Taylor Kemp (19:47)

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Key Themes:

• Identity and Recognition: Exploring who Mary Magdalene was and her unique place among the saints.
• Devotion and Service: Her acts of anointing Jesus and providing for His ministry demonstrate profound love and service.
• Witness to the Resurrection: Her role as the first to witness and proclaim the Resurrection underscores her importance in Christian theology.
• Intercession and Inspiration: Drawing inspiration from her life to cultivate a closer relationship with Christ and to live out the Gospel actively.

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Final Thoughts

St. Mary Magdalene's life is a testament to the transformative power of God's love. Her dedication, loyalty, and pivotal role in the Resurrection narrative make her an enduring figure of inspiration for believers seeking to deepen their faith and embody the teachings of Christ.

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Explore More:

To watch full video interviews and access additional resources, visit formed.org. Support the Augustan Institute's mission by becoming a Mission Circle Partner at missioncircle.org.

Transcript

[Narrator]

You're listening to a podcast on Catholic Saints. This podcast is produced by the Augustine Institute, an apostolate helping Catholics understand, live, and share their faith.

[Taylor Kemp]

Hello and welcome to Form Now. I'm Taylor Kemp. With me is Dr. Ben Akers. Dr. Ben Akers. We're talking about St. Mary Magdalene today.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah. I love this series that we've been doing on Catholic Saints. And people have responded, too. They've appreciated getting to know the saints. These are our older brothers and sisters in Christ alive in Christ in heaven.

[Taylor Kemp]

Transformed by the love of God.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Transformed by the love of God. And I always found it edifying growing up. Edifying going through the different lives of the saints.

[Taylor Kemp]

I agree.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

And every time I read the lives of the Saints, I'm like, that's amazing. Because they are so creative in the way that they live out faith, hope, and charity.

[Taylor Kemp]

Yep.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

And we all have the same three virtues infused to us by God, orient us to God, a gift given to us at baptism. And everyone's creative in how they live it out. The saints are.

[Taylor Kemp]

Well, yes. I remember listening for the first time to. We have an audio Drama on St. Francis of Assisi, which eventually led me to choose him as my confirmation saint. I remember listening to a story being like, this is amazing. Like, it's so cool. There were so many ways in which I related to it. And then I. But I do remember just being like, his time's a little different than ours, and then recognizing, you know, as the Church teaches, that God is continually give, helping people live out faith, open charity in the time in which they actually find themselves. And that, like, God is working for that time. That's why the saints are inspiring. But it'll look different in our lives.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Did you choose St. Francis because he played calcho?

[Taylor Kemp]

I don't know what that is.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Soccer. It's Italian for soccer, man.

[Taylor Kemp]

Did he actually.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

No, they didn't exactly exist.

[Taylor Kemp]

It probably existed.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah, probably they kicked something. A leather ball or something around. Yeah.

[Taylor Kemp]

No, honestly, the reason I liked it was because at the time, I was playing professional soccer, and I read. I read into the Breach, the apostolic exhortation from Archbishop Olmstead. Archbishop Olmstead. And he talks about some, like, great, heroic male saints, and he talks about St. Francis. And he said one of the particular things about Francis was that he gathered a group of men around him is. And they all supported each other, and eventually that would become the Franciscans. And I remember, like, hey, I'm surrounded by a group of men all the time because of my soccer team. And so I Remember, just really like I, I just liked that. Like, I liked that Francis was like, how can I get other guys to do this kind take on this way of life with me? And I remember looking around and be like, I'm surrounded by a bunch of guys. I gotta figure out how I can get them to take on this life with me. And then like there was some really, there were some ways in which that actually happened which was really beautiful. So I, I read that was inspired by that particular. Not the. Did you say coucho Gaucho Calcho? Didn't. Wasn't that. And then, and then I listened to the audio drama by the recommendation of a friend. And then now he's my confirmation saint.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

And now you're working at an apostolate. Yes, Catholic apostolate.

[Taylor Kemp]

Now I'm working at.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

This dream can be yours as well.

[Taylor Kemp]

If you surprising soccer.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

And then now working at a.

[Taylor Kemp]

You find yourself playing professional soccer, you too can work at the Augusta Institute. Yeah, dreams come true.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

We, we take professional athletes. So.

[Taylor Kemp]

Yeah, it's true. There was actually a really great moment. I had just left like the third lecture of Dr. Barber's On Pauline Epistles, St. Paul's Letters. And I remember thinking to myself, I would give anything to work here. True story.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Well, thank you for giving your right arm. I know you didn't need it because you're left needed. Well, that's really cool. I didn't know that part of the story.

[Taylor Kemp]

Yeah, it's a good story. It's a good story.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

It's beautiful. Well, one of the things, a beautiful state that we're going to talk about.

[Taylor Kemp]

Today, St. Mary Magdalene.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

St. Mary Magdalene. She's one of my favorites. I actually named one of my daughters after her. So her middle name is Marie Madeleine. So the French version of Mary Magdalene. And yeah, her feast day is July 22nd. Her feast was. She's had, you know, been in the news, the church news more recently because her, her feast day was raised to. From an optional memorial to a feast day. So it's full on feast day. So it's one to celebrate.

[Taylor Kemp]

It is that she is one to celebrate. I would say she's one of the more well known.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yes.

[Taylor Kemp]

Like a lot of people have heard of Mary Magdalene.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

The question is who is, who is Mary Magdalene? Yeah, we have her in the Gospels. I like to go to the first passage that I go to. So some of this is speculation. So the early church fathers, when they're writing and they're reading the scriptures and reading the scriptures, they'll, you know, they, they will. The kind of, the biggest kind of question mark is, is Mary Magdalene the same as Mary Bethany? I think she is. And I'm going to make an argument for that. But there's so many Marys that you get to the gospels, you're like, wait, okay, there's Mary the mother of Jesus, there's Mary Magdalene, there's Mary Bethany, there's Mary the wife of, you know, so and so, and then there's Mary. So you go through and. Which is actually a kind of a fun external proof that we did not make this up.

[Taylor Kemp]

Yeah. Because you're like, this was, this would be bad storytelling.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

This was Mary and this was.

[Taylor Kemp]

You're like, when you get to the cross in John, you're like, how many Marys are we talking about?

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah, there's going to be two James's close friends. And it's beautiful to see when you, you know, because it's true. And they related who these people really were as historical figures. But these names, especially of the apostles, remind us of the heroes of the Maccabees. It really shows, like the Maccabees, Simon, John.

[Taylor Kemp]

Judas.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Judas. Yep. Judas Maccabeus. Yep. So, yeah, so Mary Magdalene. So the first time we actually get introduced to Mary Magdalene is in Luke chapter eight. So where she's first mentioned. But right before that, in Luke chapter seven, we have the story of the Gospel of Luke is telling about a sinner, a woman of the city. This is Luke chapter 7. And Jesus is dining at a Pharisee's house named Simon. Not the Simon Peter, but a Pharisee named Simon. And she arrives with an alabaster flask of ointment to anoint Christ. And look at how Luke describes this scene. So I'm in Luke chapter 7. My Bible's falling apart. Luke chapter 7, verse 37. We behold a woman of the city who was a sinner. She learned that Jesus was sitting at table at the Pharisees house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment standing beside him, behind him, at his feet, weeping. She began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment. Is there a particular word that jumps out of you, out at you at that passage? Oh, that's repeated often.

[Taylor Kemp]

Okay, let's see. I don't know.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

For me.

[Taylor Kemp]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

It was feet.

[Taylor Kemp]

Okay. There is a lot of feet.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

There's a lot of feet. Right. And so this is, you know, this is dusty roads dirty Roads, they're walking. And then Jesus says, look, you know, when I came to show up at your house later, later in the story, he's like, you didn't anoint my feet. You didn't wash me. You didn't anoint my head. You didn't greet me. And yet she hasn't stopped kissing my feet since she. Since she arrived. And he gives this beautiful parable about those who've been forgiven much will love much. But why is this woman so. That's Luke, chapter seven. Why is this woman so focused on the feet of Christ? And my theory that I reading Scripture is that she's remembering the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 52. So Isaiah 40:66, the second half of Isaiah, is called the book of consolation because it begins, comfort, comfort my people. It's the beginning of good news. So Book of woe, chapters one through 39. Now we're in the book of Good News. And one of the good news is how beautiful are the feet of him who brings the gospel. And what's the gospel in Isaiah 52? That God is reigning, that God is returning, that God has forgiven the sins of his people. And so this is my theory is that this woman that I think is Mary Magdalene is wiping and anointing the feet of Christ.

[Taylor Kemp]

She recognizes.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

She recognizes that he's the one bringing the good news. And what's the good news? It's forgiveness. And he's, you know, she's Much, who has been forgiven much, will love much. So the reason that then we think that this might be Mary Magdalene, and, you know, we're in good company. St. Gregory the Great, Pope, St. Gregory the Great was one of these. Is that the very time that we get introduced to Mary Magdalene as a character in the Gospels is in Luke, chapter eight. So after this scene in Luke chapter eight, soon afterward, he went on through the cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. So he's bringing the gospel. And the 12 were with him. So the 12 apostles. And also were some women who had been healed, evil spirits and infirmities. Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out. Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their means. So it's a beautiful. We get a snapshot of what Jesus's ministry looks like as he's going town to town. He's actually going with the 12 apostles and many women who are supporting them in this role. So it's a beautiful image. And Mary Magdalene is listed Here as one of the people that have followed Christ and that seven demons had gone out of her. So this. Yeah, this. Yeah, go ahead.

[Taylor Kemp]

Well, I was going to push back a little bit.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah.

[Taylor Kemp]

Okay, so I like the theory. I'm going to. I'll start there. That this woman recognizing that in Jesus person, the kingdom is coming, that he's bringing mercy, she responds by going to the feet of the one that's bringing the good news. However, wasn't it also customary to clean one's feet for a servant to clean one's feet when they entered into a home?

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah.

[Taylor Kemp]

So, like, is it also like, she, she. First of all, I'm actually.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

You're supporting the. Yeah. By saying that she's doing an act of service.

[Taylor Kemp]

She is.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

And then she followed. Then she becomes following Jesus and doing acts of service. That's true.

[Taylor Kemp]

But also, when, when I first read this and you asked me what. What stuck out to you? Actually, what stuck out to me rather than like an actual word, I was like, she just came into this person's house and just started speaking. Like, the boldness of, of her level of service is like, absolutely astounding. Like, she has thrown out and like, you know, it sounds like she's had a really hard life. She has thrown out every concern with what people think of her, which is like such a necessary thing to really give one's heart entirely over to Christ. So she's an admirable model of that. But so, like, yeah, actually, I guess that would actually support what you're saying, that she, she recognizing something in him, that she wants to fall at his feet and serve him. I was just thinking, like, that's a customary thing to do rather than she simply is living out the Old Testament passage in a way that is not customary. I guess I was just thinking these things are congruent with each other.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Well, and so this actually. So this is the connection between Luke 7 and Luke 8. The close connection between those two stories is what led the early church fathers to connect these two women. Not all agree on that. So I'm not saying this is a theory. I'm just going to argue my theory.

[Taylor Kemp]

Speculative theology.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

I have the microphone. But then we get to know her as Mary Magdalene. And actually, when the women are listed, if you read the rest of the Gospels, when the women that come and serve and follow Jesus are listed, she's always listed first.

[Taylor Kemp]

Interesting. Which was a way of giving prominence.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Giving prominence. So similar to like, Peter is always listed first in the list of apostles. Now what does Magdalene mean? Well, we discovered archeologically a town in the north, sorry, the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee called Magdala. So it could have been that she was from that town of Magdala. Another possibility is that the Jewish rabbinical comment found in the Talmud. So interpretation. Jewish interpretation of the Scriptures said that Magdalene euphemistically referred to, like, so a curling of one's hair, euphemistically to prostitute.

[Taylor Kemp]

Right.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

So this is kind of one interpretation. Another possibility is that the Aramaic title, which means great or magnificent. So she'd be Mary the Great or magnificent. And these are according to the French historian Henri Daniel Ropes. And as he's looking at the passage, he. He thought that it was a playful. Magdalene is a playful corruption of the Aramaic word for perfume. So Mary, she becomes Mary the perfumer or Mary. Yeah. Okay, so those are all different theories about why the Magdalene.

[Taylor Kemp]

Are you sticking with the.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Well, so I think so then to push another theory is I think that Mary Magdalene is Mary of Bethany. And we meet Mary of Bethany in Luke's gospel, and she is the sister. So Mary of Bethany is a sister of Martha and the sister of Lazarus. So this holy family of Bethany, you have Mary Martha, why would they.

[Taylor Kemp]

Why would. If in the Gospel of Luke, she has been called Mary of Magdalene? Mary Magdalene, Mary of Magdala, why then to switch to Mary of Bethany?

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Well, he doesn't call her Mary Bethany. We just know that that's the town in which they live. So we say, like, oh, that's the Mary from Bethany. I have an idea about that. It could be that if Magdalene. So maybe she's from Bethany, and then she leaves her family, goes to be a prostitute. Right. Or live a different life in Magdala, she comes back to her home and she reclaims kind of where she's from. That's one theory that I think is plausible. But if we look at the story of Mary Magdalene and Martha and Lazarus. So I'm not the only one out there that's kind of proposing this, but I'm gonna make the argument is the next time that we see Mary in the story that Mary Bethany is at a dinner. So we meet her. Luke 7 dinner, Luke 8. She's walking around serving Christ and others. And she's at a dinner, and she's at the house of her sister Martha. There's that famous story where Martha is preparing the meal. And where is Mary sitting? This is Luke 10:39 at his feet. Yeah. So I think that one of the clues to read this is why one of my. This is why I hold to this view is that we always see Mary at the feet of Christ. So she's at the feet of Christ, and Martha tries to bring Jesus into a family dispute. Hey, Lord, you tell her. You tell my sister, get her dishes. Come and help me with the dishes. Yeah, I love that. See, it's like, how do we tell the Lord? Like, you need to do this, Lord. Yeah, like, as if he doesn't know.

[Taylor Kemp]

Lord, you need to tell this other person to do a little bit more.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yes, exactly. We tell the Lord what to do. And I love that line. Martha, Martha, you're troubled and anxious about many things, but one thing is needful and Mary has chose the better part. So the better part is to sit at the feet of Jesus, who is the good news of the Father. And what's he doing? He's preaching, he's teaching. So she's at the feet and is connected to the gospel. It's connected to good news.

[Taylor Kemp]

Can I actually give a nice little plug that this is an argument that Bram Petrie made? He has a book called Introduction to the Spiritual Life. And he talks about the scene and how through the church fathers particularly use that line of Christ. You're worried about many things. One thing is necessary. She has chosen the better portion. That. That's prayer, contemplative prayer. Like that's been tied to that often. But what's fascinating that I had never heard anyone else make this argument is Dr. Petrie notes that the Lord does not rebuke her for her action. It's for doing her action in anxiety. I was like, that's a fascinating thing to think about.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Oh, that's beautiful. Yeah, I haven't gotten to that part yet. It's a wonderful book, though. Introduction to the Spiritual Life. Spiritual life by Dr. Grandpa. I do remember a quote from St. Jose Maria Escreva where he says that, yeah, Martha's not rebuked for doing the dishes, preparing the meal. She hasn't listened to Christ while she's doing the dishes.

[Taylor Kemp]

And she's distracted. That's the other thing is it says you're distracted and anxious about many things.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah. So we can find Christ among the pots and pans. That's kind of a famous saying of Teresa Vela, to find Christ among the pots and pans.

[Taylor Kemp]

Yep.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

So we can. No, that's great. No. So we can presume that Mary chose the better portion the rest of her life.

[Taylor Kemp]

Yeah.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

And the next time we see Mary and Martha and Lazarus is in John, when their brother Lazarus passes away. Word is Sent to Christ. And he comes and Lazarus has already passed. And that's a beautiful scene in John 11, but look how consistent it is with John's portrayal of the story, with Luke's telling of the story. So if this is the same Mary and Martha and Lazarus from Luke 10, it is okay. We didn't even hear about Lazarus in Luke 10. John 11. He's in the tomb. He's dead. But who goes out to meet Christ and demand that he do something in the story of John 11?

[Taylor Kemp]

Mary.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

No, it's Martha.

[Taylor Kemp]

Oh, it's Martha.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Martha. Lord.

[Taylor Kemp]

Mary stays home.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah. So Lord, if you would have done something if you had been here, he would not have died. And then the beautiful exchange. I'm the resurrection life. It really is beautiful. And Mary's back contemplating. He says, go get Mary. And then Mary comes. So Mary's used to be waiting for Christ to call her. And then she responds. And then they had a beautiful resurrection scene. So, you know, foreshadowing his own impending resurrection, death and then resurrection from the death, dead. So then a week before we have Jesus, death and resurrection, Mary anoints Christ at a dinner. Again, three of the four evangelists recount. The scene takes place right before Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. So the Eve of palm Sundays. And Mary carries an alabaster flask of pure nard, an ointment, and anoints the entire contents of Christ's head and feet. And this is very expensive ointment, a root from India's wages at least. And then her extravagance of loving Christ everyone complains about because like, no, the money could be spent on the poor, right? And Judas is selfish because he steals from the poor. We got this insight that John, that Judas. John tells us that Judas is a thief, but Jesus says no, her action is prophetic because she's preparing me for my burial. Because his lifeless body will be taken down from the cross and not have a proper burial. And then it's also prophetic. Mary's anointing is also prophetic, is that she foreshadows Christ's complete self offering on the cross. So she spends this entire costly ointment, her life savings upon Christ. In his passion, he's gonna pour out his whole and precious life. And the beautiful thing is John, proving that he's an eyewitness of the account, says the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. Jesus death. This precious death will fill the entire world with the beautiful fragrance of the gospel. And Mary's action is so important that Jesus says, wherever the Gospel is preached, what she did for me will be told in memory of her.

[Taylor Kemp]

Yeah.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

And it's true. We still have this story that's carried down to us today. So Jesus is crucified, is on the cross. Who's at his feet? We have John, the apostle, Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene. She's at his feet when his body's taken down from the cross and they lay him in the tomb, where she's probably keeping vigil at his feet right as they're laying the body into the tomb. And then early Sunday morning, early Sunday morning of the Easter Sunday, she goes to give Jesus's body a respectful burial it deserves. And she gets, you know, she wants another chance to anoint him. And she comes with her ointments and spices, but she finds the tomb empty. She runs. And, you know, the beautiful encounter of her Jesus calling her by the name. He's the gardener, Miriam. He calls her Miriam. Like, recognize the name. She comes to him. And even if the Gospels didn't tell us, we would have been tracking with Mary Magdalene's story. We would have known what she would do next when she meets our lord. And Matthew 28:10 says that Jesus greets her and she took hold of his feet and worshiped him. So we see Mary at the feet of Christ. And why? Why? Because beautiful are the feet of him who brings the gospel, the good news. She sees the good news of the resurrection. She had the good news of mercy in her life. And then what does Jesus tell her to do? Go and tell the apostles. And so she's the one now running, and her feet are now beautiful as the one who runs to tell the good news. And we have the beautiful title of Mary called the Apostle to the apostles, the one who brings the good news of the gospel to the world. And she brings the good news to the apostles, who then bring it to the world.

[Taylor Kemp]

Yeah, it's really beautiful working out of. In this woman's life of something that is true for each one of us, which is that, you know, like you've heard the phrase of mission flows from identity. But that recognizing that, like, when we're close to Christ, we sit at his feet, we receive his life, we receive his teaching, we fall in love with him. That the response of that is, then we're sent out to share that and that Mary's a great example of that. This is a good argument.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Okay, so the argument against that would be. So argument before was. So we never had the feast day of Mary of Bethany on the calendar, liturgical calendar. So the liturgical argument would be we have Mary Magdalene on July 22, we have Martha on July 29, but there's no Mary of Bethany. But Mary's the one who chose the better part. Why is Mary not on the liturgical calendar? To remedy that, Pope Francis actually added to Martha's feast day on July 29, Mary of Bethany and Lazarus. So an argument against him. He'd be like, well, he's saying that she isn't. However, to that I say, well, she can have more than one feast. There are apostles that have more than one feast. Mary has lots of feasts. Mary, the mother of Jesus, Peter has more than one feast. John the Baptist has more than one feast.

[Taylor Kemp]

Paul's conversion has a feast.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Paul's conversion has a feast. Mary, the apostle to the apostles, she has more than one feast.

[Taylor Kemp]

I like it. All right, so what are some main takeaways? I mean, you've talked about that, but to kind of tie a bow on this, what are some main takeaways that we can learn, gain from, or pray to St Mary Magdalene for?

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah, stay close to Christ, Stay close to always be learning from him. Whenever we have trouble, anxiety, go to him, sit at his feet to learn his teaching. And we get his teaching through going to Mass and hearing the word of God proclaimed from receiving him in the Eucharist by going to Eucharistic adoration. Mary Magdalene would be an example of someone who was tormented by seven demons and was healed of that. So to pray for those who are oppressed for her intercession for those who are oppressed by demons and if, and if we were oppressed by demons, to ask her, you know, special grace through Christ's power of his blood to drive out demons in our life. I think of example of repentance. We're all sinners.

[Taylor Kemp]

That's right. And she would be gracious in his mercy. His mercy.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

And to know that and to receive that as good news, like this is news that will change your life.

[Taylor Kemp]

Yeah, I like it. Thank you. Yeah, it's a good argument.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Thanks.

[Taylor Kemp]

St. Mary Magdalene.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Pray for us.

[Taylor Kemp]

Pray for us.

[Narrator]

You can watch these interviews in video format by visiting formed.org formed is an online Catholic streaming service created by the Augustan Institute and Ignatius Press with award winning studies and parish programs, inspiring audio content, movies, ebooks, and family friendly kids programming to support the mission of the Augustine institute. Please visit missioncircle.org.