Friday, 25 July 2008

The Magdalene





Bookmark and Share
Posted by Roses and Jessamine

1 comment:

James M said...

You know some people decry the tradition that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute? I do not know if she was or she was not, but I am surprised that some people insist that she was not.

Is this what happened: around 590 AD Pope Gregory identified the Mary who anointed Jesus' feet with the woman who was to be stoned for adultery (maybe others had made this identification before the
pope did). Then 1000+ years later some Puritans, horrified by the idea that Jesus would love a prostitute insisted that Magdalene had never been any such thing. Then, spurred on by certain Jesus/Church-haters, the story spread that Catholics had been maligning Mary Magdalene by calling her a prostitute. They completely failed to understand that Jesus loves sinners and Jesus redeems us from sins. The aspect of prostitution did nothing to blight Mary but redounds to God's glory and gives hope to many.

Anyway, after being accused for generations of being nasty to Mary Magdalene, certain Catholics, instead of telling their accusers to bog off because there is no reason in Heaven or earth why Jesus should not love a prostitute; instead of saying this certain Catholics got defensive and started saying Magdalene was not a prostitute at all, that this was down to (I was told) a 'translation error of a sermon by a sixth century pope'.

Well I don't know if Mary was a prostitute or not--but I am perfectly comfortable with the idea that she was, and it makes sense given that she loved much because she was forgiven much.

26/07/2008, 22:30

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)