For centuries, Mary Magdalene was remembered as Christianity's most famous repentant prostitute.
There’s one rather significant problem: She wasn't a prostitute. The canonical gospels never describe her that way.
They place Mary Magdalene among Jesus' followers, present at his crucifixion and burial, and identify her as the first witness to the resurrection—the person entrusted to tell the other disciples what she had seen.
In other words: an apostle to the apostles.
Yet in 591 CE, Pope Gregory I delivered a sermon that merged Mary Magdalene with other unnamed women in the biblical narrative, including a woman described as “sinful.”
The interpretation endured.
One of early Christianity's most important women became a symbol of sexual sin and repentance.
Her reputation became more memorable than her authority.
But another Mary survived.
Texts associated with diverse early Christian communities, including the Gospel of Mary, preserve traditions in which Mary appears as a spiritual teacher with insight and authority of her own.
The Gospel of Mary offers a particularly provocative idea: Look within.
The journey toward freedom is not dependent upon status, hierarchy or an external authority granting access. It is an inward transformation—a confrontation with the forces preventing us from recognizing what is already there. A power within.
In this Garden of Even™ portrait, a young woman sits peacefully while the world around her is frenetic.
Light emanates from within. The work is called Remembering.
Because Mary's invitation isn't to become something we are not.
It’s to remember something we have forgotten: our inherent worth. Our capacity to love. Our equality with one another. And the inner authority to see ourselves and our world differently.
