Saint Mary Magdalene: Women and Jesus

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Mary,
the Mother of God

Joseph,
husband of Mary

Peter,
fisherman and foundation

John,
the disciple
whom Jesus loved

Text by Victor Hoagland, C.P.

Women and Jesus

And women in turn responded generously to him. The Samaritan woman at Jacob's well told her whole town about him. The Syro-Phoenician woman whom he met on one of his journeys was the first Gentile to show faith in him. Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, repeatedly welcomed him to their home. Mary Magdalene and the other women supported him from their means. Women were attentive listeners to his teaching. They saw what he did and they remembered everything.

When Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the final time to celebrate the Passover, Mary Magdalene went with him, together with his Mother Mary and some other women from Galilee. On that Thursday night they heard he had been arrested and on Friday morning they hurried to the place where he was being held. None of his other disciples were there; during the night they had deserted him.

There was little the women could do except look on when Pilate pronounced the death sentence on Jesus. All around them people shouted: "Let him be crucified!".Nothing they could do would stop what was happening. They saw him come out bleeding from being whipped by the Roman soldiers. They watched as the wooden cross was laid on his shoulders. As he went up the path to Mount Calvary they tried to get close to him. They could hardly bear it when he was stripped of his clothes and nailed to the cross. But they would not leave him. Instead they edged closer, until they stood near the cross itself.

woman drawing water from Jacob's Well, c. 1927

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