Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the feast day of one of the greatest saints of Christendom, that is of St. Mary Magdalene, the faithful and close disciple of Christ. St. Mary Magdalene had gone through a lot in her life, and the story of her journey of faith and return to the Lord ought to touch many of us indeed, and many of her life examples can still be practiced even today.

St. Mary Magdalene was a great sinner, who lived in sin, earning her living by selling her own body to others through prostitution. She was occupied by many, some say seven evil spirits, who corrupted her and kept her away from following the path of the Lord. She seduced many men into sin and became the tool of the devil to destroy mankind.

Yet, the Lord who had come to heal the sick and forgive sinners, had also come to St. Mary Magdalene, in the depth of her sinfulness, and rescued her from both the darkness and the evil spirits that resided within her. He casted them out of her, and made her once again the proud daughter of the Lord, returned her to the path of salvation to God.

Nevertheless, her previous occupation as a prostitute did leave a significant social stigma on her, and on many occasions, she was prejudiced against, even by Christ’s own disciple, most evidently Judas Iscariot. St. Mary Magdalene was the one who anointed the feet of Jesus with a jar full of precious nard perfume, and dried His feet with her own hair, as an anointing before the death of Christ, which was lambasted by Judas as being wasteful. The Lord rebuked him, because He saw the true good and sincerity in St. Mary Magdalene’s heart in loving the Lord and in her commitment, and the devil that dwelled within Judas, waiting for his betrayal of Jesus.

She followed Christ through His Passion and suffering, walking through the Way of the Cross to Calvary, accompanying Mary, the mother of Christ. She accompanied Christ through the darkest hours unto His death. Her faith in God had become so strong, that although her faith was shaken by the death of Jesus, she remained a strong and faithful servant of the Lord.

Such is her devotion to the Lord that when the Lord was Risen and His earthly Body disappeared, she was in great sorrow, because she thought that someone could have stolen the body of Christ. She searched for the Lord and could not find Him, and her anguish can be illustrated as what the first reading today from the book of Song of Songs had mentioned, like a maiden searching for the love of her heart and could not find him.

The Lord granted her His grace by showing Himself to her first among all the disciples, and revealed to her all of His Resurrected glory. He showed her a new hope, that is salvation, that through Christ, who has died and risen from the dead, all mankind should have hope of transcending our fate that is death, and into a new and everlasting life with Christ at the end of time.

St. Mary Magdalene is a great role model for all of us, all of us sinners who are still awaiting and searching for God’s mercy and forgiveness. She had gone through much suffering and rejection, as what we will certainly also face, if we turn ourselves from our life of sin into a new life filled with the Holy Spirit and walking on the path of Christ, the only way to salvation.

And even today, many would try to discredit St. Mary Magdalene by spreading lies about her and also Christ. I am sure that all of you would have known the ‘acclaimed’ story by Dan Brown on the supposed story between St. Mary Magdalene and Christ in his bestseller ‘The Da Vinci Code’, how they secretly were married and St. Mary Magdalene bearing the child of Christ. Not only that this insulted the memory and the goodness of St. Mary Magdalene, but it also insulted the very person of Christ, our Lord.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, it is very important for all of us, not to be fooled by the devil into believing these stories made to confuse us and steer us away from the path of Christ, that is the only path to salvation. Remember brethren, that the devil has many tools in his pocket, and this is just yet another way he used to deceive mankind that they will remain in the state of sin and impurity so that we will fall to hell to be tortured with Satan for eternity.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us strengthen our faith and affirm our dedication and devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ, through the intercession of St. Mary Magdalene, whose great conversion would have inspired many of us to do the same in our own lives. Let us repent brothers and sisters, and present a humble, contrite heart from each of us sinners, on the feet of our Lord Jesus, as the true offering of ourselves, that He will heal us and bring us up from the trap of sin and the depth of the sea of darkness, into a new life in the light of Christ, a new life worth living because we have Christ. God bless us all, and may St. Mary Magdalene continue to pray for us for our own redemption. Amen.