The Apostle, Not the Apology: Magdalene’s True Role in the Jesus Movement
Cynthia Bourgeault’s Second Chapter Reframes Mary Magdalene as the Embodied Wisdom Carrier of Jesus’ Inner Circle—Not the Fallen Footnote
📚 Continuing the Journey
This post is part of an unfolding series exploring Cynthia Bourgeault’s The Meaning of Mary Magdalene, a work that doesn’t just challenge the church’s historical narrative—it reclaims a spiritual lineage buried beneath centuries of silence. If Chapter 1 cracked open the door, Chapter 2 steps into the Gospel texts themselves, asking: What do the canonical scriptures really say about Mary? The answer is both stunning and strangely familiar—like something we always knew, but had forgotten how to name.
🧠 Key Takeaways
Mary Magdalene appears prominently in every single Gospel, always at the climactic moments of crucifixion and resurrection.
The notion that she was a prostitute or “sinful woman” is not found anywhere in the canonical texts.
In the Gospel of John, Mary’s encounter with the risen Christ is the original Easter moment—and her sending makes her the first true apostle.
The institutional Church’s refusal to honor this role says more about patriarchal gatekeeping than theological integrity.
Bourgeault’s reading invites us to see not just a misremembered woman—but a suppressed lineage of wisdom, intimacy, and inner knowing.
🌀 Chapter 2: Mary Magdalene in the Canonical Gospels
In this chapter, Cynthia Bourgeault sets her mystical scalpel to the core texts of the Christian tradition—the canonical Gospels themselves—and asks: What do they actually say about Mary Magdalene?
Spoiler alert: a hell of a lot more than the church let on. And none of it supports the harlot myth.
This chapter builds a foundational case: that even without touching the Gnostic gospels, you can see a powerful and central Mary rising straight from the pages of the New Testament—if you’re not reading with patriarchal blinders on.
📖 The Magdalene Data: What the Gospels Actually Say
Bourgeault lays out a forensic list of every mention of Mary Magdalene across the four canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John). The overwhelming pattern? Mary is present:
At the crucifixion
At the burial
At the resurrection
The male disciples scatter. Magdalene stays.
She is mentioned by name more than most of the twelve apostles. And when she appears, she’s not just background noise—she’s pivotal. Her name isn’t just dropped in. It’s anchored, often listed first among the women present.
Bourgeault’s takeaway is unmistakable: Mary wasn’t peripheral. She was foundational.
💀 The Passion Narratives: Where the Real Magdalene Shows Up
It’s in the Passion accounts—Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection—that Mary Magdalene takes center stage.
She is the only person mentioned in all four Gospels as a witness to the resurrection. This is no minor detail. It places her at the heart of the Christian revelation.
And yet... no doctrine was built around her. No apostolic office granted. No liturgical feast positioned her as the bridge between death and rebirth.
Bourgeault notes that this absence of honor isn't accidental—it’s an intentional omission rooted in discomfort. Not with Mary herself, but with what she represents: a form of knowing that bypasses authority, structure, and hierarchy.
🕊️ The Easter Encounter: John's Gospel and the Sacred Recognition
Bourgeault zooms in on the Gospel of John’s version of the resurrection encounter—a moment she reads with the heart of a mystic.
Jesus says, “Mary.”
She replies, “Rabboni.”
And in that naming and recognition, Bourgeault sees not just an exchange of grief but a profound moment of transmission.
Mary becomes the first person to see the Risen Christ. And Jesus sends her—apostellein in Greek—to tell the others.
There it is. Plain as day.
She is sent. She is apostolic.
Not symbolically. Functionally.
Bourgeault: “If we took Scripture seriously on this point, Mary Magdalene would be recognized as the first apostle—not Paul, not Peter. Her.”
💡 The Misogyny Behind the Marginalization
So why isn’t she?
Bourgeault doesn’t hedge: it was male discomfort with her spiritual authority that led to her demotion. The Church chose Peter’s version of events. And his need for order, control, and hierarchy didn't have room for the embodied, intuitive, relational knowing that Mary represented.
This chapter isn’t angry, but it is clear-eyed. Bourgeault names the systemic gender bias baked into the narrative scaffolding of Christianity. But rather than simply critique it, she calls readers to see what was always there.
🧃 Virgin Monk Boy’s Liturgical Juice Box
Virgin Monk Boy kicks open the sacristy door and shouts:
“Y’all gonna stop pretending she was just the snack lady at the crucifixion?”
Let’s be blunt. If Mary had been named Mark, there’d be a basilica with his face on it by now.
But she wasn’t. She was Magdalene—tower-woman, first witness, sacred mirror. She held the trauma and the glory. She didn’t flinch. She saw. She knew. And then she was sent.
So the question isn’t “Should we take her seriously?”
It’s: How long will we keep pretending we didn’t see her standing there, holding resurrection in her eyes while the bishops rewrote the guest list?
🧘♀️ Meditation Practice: Mary and the Field of Merit
1. Visualization
Begin by sitting comfortably. Close your eyes.
Visualize Mary Magdalene before you—calm, steady, fully awake.
Now bring to mind other benefactors, teachers, and guides who have wished you well.
They are gathered in a field of merit.
Receive their wish for your deepest well-being, happiness, and joy.
Let it come to you fully.
2. Dissolving the Field
Now let the field dissolve.
Let Mary and the benefactors merge into you.
Their presence becomes your presence.
No separation.
3. Begin Centering Prayer
Choose a sacred word: “Christ,” “Abba,” “Maranatha,” or one that holds meaning for you.
Use it to gently return to stillness when thoughts arise.
Rest in silence.
(Sit for 10–20 minutes.)
🙏 Dedication of Merit
May any clarity, stillness, or blessing from this practice
be offered to all who remain unseen, unheard, or exiled.
May the wisdom path of Mary Magdalene be remembered, embodied, and shared.
May all beings benefit.
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I suspect the masculine unconscious knows this, and explains the insanity of fear of loss of power and control by white men in this current administration. The light was lit when we elected Barack Obama not just once, but twice. The underground coup d’état had begun to coalesce decades ago. Only with the hubris, personality disorders, his own history of disdain for women, POC, immigrants, the poor, the disabled, and raised by men who knew how to cheat and lie to illegally and immorally gain uber-wealth, did Pandora’s Box get opened on the streets of the USA, for all the world to see. The Women’s civil rights movements, the Civil Rights Marches by the disenfranchised Black community, and the subsequent acknowledgment and acceptance of LGBTQ+ and transgender people, threw gas on the smoldering fears of mostly Old White Men. The final unacceptable data statistics that began to emerge: the white population would itself become a minority in the coming decade.
And, now, finally, we have Mary Magdalene, unburied and rising in the consciousness of all peoples of the world. Many of we women have articulated the necessity of recognizing the in t’égarât ion of the feminine with the masculine my whole adult life. The Yin AND the Yang. The Right AND the LEFT brainer functionings. Emotional Intelligence Scales as a better predictor of Quality Leadership than Intelligence Quotients alone. “Me, too,” movements opened the doors to holding men accountable for their predatory behavior. And so on. Hillary rose to power through hard work, results, and demonstrated the wisdom of women’s leadership. But the white men if they were asleep woke up to their own visceral fears and used their learned immoral and illegal backroom strategies to say no. And, again, as if the fear of a woman in power wasn’t enough, some of us naively thought a black mixed-race woman had a shot at leading our nation to a more perfect Union, wherein everyone on the planet is respected and honored as being equal in our humanity’s search for peace, Justice and equity.
So I praise this current of evolution of the NECESSITY of recognizing and integrating the feminine into our global consciousness. Although not Catholic, nor do I adhere to the rigors of any religious structure controlled by men, I am well-steeped in the messages of the world spiritual leaders. I was raised on the teachings of Jesus, the Beatitudes. I have allowed my feminine intuitions and voices to open the pathways and doors to places where I now know Heaven on Earth is a possibility. All we humans have to do is choose it. Peace is waiting for us today. And this wisdom is already inside our beings (ALL humans, men, women LGBTQ+, trans), we already know. I am seeing the evolution of Popes Francis and Leo as a signal that real consciousness is on the rise. The lights shining within each of are becoming brighter and stronger. Quoting a modern day wisdom figures, “There’s more going on than meets the eye,” and “The times, they are a-changing.” Amen. So Be It. A’Ho.
I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this. As someone who has dedicated so much volunteer time promoting the safety, wellbeing and rights of women--and someone--and the only one in my family--who has had issues with my "birth" religion because of how it treats women as less than, this was refreshing. Thank you.