Mary Magdalene, Our Sister: Wounded Disciple, Witness of the Risen One: July 22, 2025

“Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name, you are mine.” — Isaiah 43:1

Table of Contents

Mary Magdalene, Our Sister: Wounded Disciple, Witness of the Risen One:

Is Mary Magdalene our sister? According to the humorous opinion of Brother Krzysztof Poplawski, reported by Brother Jaroslav on Sunday: “Although I like Mary’s attitude, I would marry Martha.” Mary Magdalene would then be his sister-in-law. In sed contra, Mary Magdalene reportedly told King Charles of Anjou in 1279: “I want my relics to be entrusted to the care of my brothers, the Dominicans.” So here we are, Mary Magdalene’s brothers. But what does that mean for us?

Of course, there’s a lot more to say. First of all, Mary Magdalene’s story is also ours and that of the Church. Mary Magdalene passed from death to life when she met Christ, who forgave her many sins because of the great love she showed. She became a disciple of Christ, just as Cardinal Ryś invited us to do on Thursday. She calls him: Rabbouni. She will be a missionary because she has been a disciple. This was not easy for her. I can imagine the courage it took for her to break away from a tumultuous life, and put herself in the School of Christ and the Gospel. As our brother Jesus told us yesterday: we need to have lived within ourselves the experience of God’s forgiveness and mercy. Mary Magdalene is our sister because, like her, we are first and foremost forgiven sinners, invited to leave everything behind and follow Christ. Yes, like her, we have become his disciples (or at least we try to be), consecrated by our baptism and profession. Like her, we are called to contemplate the mysteries of God and to renew day after day our “yes” to the Lord, persevering in unanimity in prayer and common life (cf. Col 4:2). Mary Magdalene is the figure of the Church, in constant need of conversion.

Mary Magdalene is also a sister in that she is the voice of the wounded. She herself was not respected either in body or reputation: she was seen only as a sinner. She had lost her dignity. She was damaged, and reminds us of the Church, the Body of Christ, itself wounded and sometimes even disfigured by our behavior when it does not conform to the Gospel. And I see in Mary Magdalene’s race to the tomb the desire to care for the inanimate body of Christ, the innocent victim. Mary Magdalene was wounded in soul and body, and she reminds us of all the wounded people in the world and in the Church, believers and non-believers alike. Their lives sometimes resemble a tomb, and they weep in search of something that might give meaning to their existence. Mary Magdalene is their sister, and ours, in the deserts we may cross. She is also a sister who calls us to weep with those who weep (cf. Romans 12:15), and to dare to enter into a dialogue with them that is often painful, but which opens to life. How many people are searching for meaning in their lives, sometimes in despair, waiting for a heart that listens, a word that enlightens, that gives hope and lifts them up? She is then the figure of the Church that takes care of them.

In today’s Gospel, she turned around twice, a sign that our search for God is never finished, that the Lord is not always where we thought he was, and that it sometimes takes time to recognize him. To turn around, to seek Christ, to recognize Him, to welcome Him as our Master and to follow Him, abiding with Him. Between these two turning-arounds, a first name is pronounced by Christ. And that changes everything. A first name is what gives us an identity, what inscribes us in a history. To call someone by their name is to recognize them as a person. Here again, I think of Cardinal Ryś’s anecdote with the person he sat next to, giving him back his dignity. It is small, and it is enormous. A first name pronounced with love, in the Name of Christ, can change a life. Mary Magdalene’s eyes were opened and she recognized her Savior. For her, Isaiah’s oracle is fulfilled: “…thus says the Lord […]: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are mine” (cf. Is 43:1). Mary Magdalene is our sister, inviting us to constantly rediscover that our soul is the garden of the resurrection, where the Risen One calls each of us by name and begets us to faith. Discovering Him to help others discover Him.Then the Lord continues: Noli me tangere. I am with you always. It is not a question of living with the Risen One, but of living in the Risen One, to say with St. Paul: “yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me (cf. Gal 2:20). Do not hold me back, which also means: do not keep for yourself what you have received and contemplated. Become a missionary disciple, become a praedicator gratiae. Go and tell my brothers! She becomes the Apostle of the Apostles, the one we must listen to, the one who teaches us, the one who goes before us. Yes, she is our sister, an elder sister in whom we can recognize ourselves and in whom we can confide. The one who helps us to live better with the Risen Christ.

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