By John Mark Reynolds
Scriptorium Daily
We don’t even know her identity for sure. Some Christians in the West believe that she was Mary Magdalene, but Christians in the East simply call her Mary of Bethany.
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Is it possible that God tells some people (men as well as women) who are sensitive when to act through reasons not known to what men call reason? Perhaps. I do know that I have learned to listen to mothers, to artists, to people who act beautifully and do not just think beautifully.
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Puritanical types draw back from the sheer physicality Mary’s act. Such folk want their religion with theoretical, not real, tears on the inside which hit no pillow, love expressed only in greeting cards and not in the hug of an actual greeting.
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I often think of this when I see mothers pouring out their lives in unpaid service to their churches or families. Nobody likes the “Church Lady” anymore except to mock her, but she has a model in Mary of Bethany.
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Mary of Bethany made a symbol real . . . and pictured what was to come by her mental act made physical. (more)
