The Faithful Ones

Art by Sr. Helen Brancato

m he would have died alone,  just another criminal executed on a bleak, stoney hillside where trees struggled to find root. Those passing might have stopped briefly, curious at the strange sign above his head.“King of the Jews” it read.

In the unbearable pain of nails through sensitive flesh and gasping for air with every breath, he would have seen only hostile, mocking or indifferent faces.

Yet they had come, risking rape, arrest and death, to be with him because they loved him beyond all thought of safety. It is said that perfect love drives out fear, and that was certainly true of Jesus’ women disciples.

When he looked down, he would have seen their faces and their eyes —undoubtedly filled with tears. Mary his mother and all the history they shared. Mary Magdalene, his most important, faithful disciple and spiritual friend. And the other devoted women who had followed him from Galilee from the beginning of his ministry. 

Surely, he would have seen how they loved him — the tenderness and compassion radiating from them to him in every way they could communicate it. Would they have tried to give Jesus the loving touch of their hands?

What did the women say to comfort their beloved friend and teacher in such a tragic hour? It must have appeared to the human Jesus to be the wreckage of all he had intended and hoped for. As the Child of God he had been on a mission to transform this world into a community of Love. And it had all come to this.

The Synoptic evangelists Mark, Matthew and Luke do not place a single one of Jesus’ male disciples at the cross. Not one of the twelve named apostles  in the gospels is reported as being with him at the end. Except for Peter and an anonymous disciple, they disappear after his arrest, apparently fleeing in fear. Peter follows as far as the courtyard of the high priest’s house. There —obviously frightened — he denies Jesus three times, then disappears from the passion narrative until after the resurrection.

The scriptures tell us how Jesus greatly rewarded his faithful women followers and spiritual companions for their loyalty. In all four gospels it is Mary Magdalene and other women to whom the resurrection is first revealed — by Jesus himself in two of the accounts. In every gospel it is women who are sent (the word “apostle” means one who is sent) to tell the male disciples that Jesus has returned from death.

Mary Magdalene and the other women were chosen  by Jesus to receive this first revelation of the most important event in Christian history.  And he called them to be apostles to their brothers and sisters, to go to tell them what they had witnessed.

For all this,  shouldn’t these women have been granted considerable “primacy or preeminence” in the community of Christ? Peter was given primacy for a statement of faith in Jesus as the Son of God. The women’s heroic actions to demonstrate their love  and fidelity to Jesus in dangerous circumstances surely should deserve no less.

Over the centuries the institutional church has found countless ways to downplay women’s roles in the life of Jesus and the early Christian community.  The male authorities have done this to justify denying women the right to be priests and participate fully in ecclesial life. For example the Gospel proclaimed on Easter morning at Catholic liturgies around the world is John’s story of male disciples finding an empty tomb. Mary Magdalene’s dramatic and moving meeting in the garden with the risen Jesus who then sends her to be the “apostle to the apostles” is relegated to the liturgical readings for the Tuesday after Easter.

After two thousand years isn’t it time to proclaim the stories of the women’s faithfulness from the pulpit because they are  inspiring examples of what it means to be willing to follow Jesus to the cross and the tomb?

Isn’t it finally time to acknowledge that their bravery for the sake of love has placed these women Jesus trusted and loved now and forever at the heart center of the Christian community?

Siddika Angle, PhD has taught world religions and world spirituality, classes on women in the bible and is the author of the novel "Song of the Turtle."