With the alarmingly high amount of partisan political censorship on social media of late, it has dawned on me that if I said on Facebook or any other social media site, “As a Roman Catholic, these are a few of the foundational tenets of my faith…” and then named a handful of basic Catholic teachings, at some point I would be censored or outright kicked off the site. It would be the result of an embedded secularism that is utterly antagonistic toward a religious worldview.
Mary Magdalene has been a complex character in Christian thought throughout Church history. She has been variously identified as Mary of Magdala; the “sinful woman” of Luke 7:36-50 who anoints Christ’s feet and dries them with her hair; and Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. What we know from Scripture is that Mary of Magdala was one of the women who followed Jesus during His ministry in Galilee, that He exorcised seven demons from her, that she was present at the foot of the cross, and that she was the first to discover the empty tomb and witness the Risen Christ.