Feast of St. Mary Magdalene

There are any number of books out there to give you all kinds of takes on who Mary Magdalene was, most will condemn Pope Gregory the Great for conflating her with a number of sinful women mentioned in the Gospels, but many of these same authors conflate Magdalene with Mary of Bethany or the woman with the alabaster jar.

Mary Magdalene is a follower of Jesus--symbolic of all of us who strive to follow him. Her moment of great joy at the resurrection of Jesus is tempered by a command to spread the news, not unlike the experience of the transfiguration for the apostles was tempered by the command to go back down the mountain.

We can learn from this, here in the fallen world we must always be about the work of Jesus empowered by Him but out spreading the Good News to all we meet.