Mary Magdalene lights the path

■ The role of women in the Catholic Church as raised by Sharon Tighe-Mooney (‘Women are still being seen as second class citizens through eyes of the Church’s male hierarchy’, Irish Independent, August 18) is apposite, given the arrival of Pope Francis.

The hugely inf luential position of Mary Magdalene has been mysteriously downplayed over the centuries.

This is genuinely curious, given that the ‘Bible’ tells us Mary Magdalene and other women were the first to visit the tomb on the morning of the resurrection. In John’s gospel, we’re told how it was she who ran to tell the apostles the body of Jesus was taken away. But it gets far more interesting when Peter then ran to the tomb and went inside and saw merely clothes. Yet when Mary Magdalene looked into the tomb she saw two angels.

How could they both see two different scenes? Plainly, the gospel of John was written 70 years af ter the resurrection when the tomb had passed into histor y.

New research suggests the writer subsequently used the biblical tabernacle as a metaphor for the tomb. The tabernacle was a mobile temple and comprised of a tent, with two rooms.

The inner room was God’s chamber and it housed two cherubim (angels). The outer room was where the regular priests officiated.

What is significant here is that the gospel writer thus elevated Mary Magdalene to the position of looking into God’s chamber where she saw the two cherubim, while Peter was relegated to the role of a regular priest, and thus consigned to the view from the outer room.

The writer was telling us that Mary Magdalene had the same status as the traditional high priest.

Remember, Jesus gave Mary Magdalene the unique honour of announcing his resurrection to the apostles. It is hard to conceive of a more exalted role for any woman in the Church than that of Mary Magdalene.

The Gospel at least had no dif ficulty in placing women at the top end of the relationship with God, whatever about the Church. You can visit my website at www. sevenbiblewonders.com

Michael Hearns

Dalkey, Dublin