St Mary Magdalene: Patronal Festival
Patronal Festival, St Mary Magdalene: 22nd July, 2010
Preached at St Mary Magdalene, Adelaide.
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
What does the fact of a particular patron saint actually mean for a community of faith? How significant is the dedication of a church? I don't know about Adelaide, but in Melbourne there is an increasing demand from a vocal part of the diocese to move away from such things altogether and instead to be merely place name or geographical area specific in the official description and naming of a parish. 'St Peter's Eastern Hill' of course has it both ways. But I consider that something substantial is being lost if we lightly abandon a practice of such a distinguished pedigree. Inside St Peter's there are at least five substantial visual representations of our patron saint and the largest is duly censed and venerated appropriately as might be expected. There are two very significant gospel passages that throw light, and not entirely favourable light, on our patron. His story, his characteristics, his shortcomings and his strengths are matters for reflection and maybe inspiration. Every year we hear about it in some way or another once again. That our patron saint is now in a place that we would in God's good time aspire to for ourselves and those we love, is a quietly accepted given. That his prayers might be joined with ours and those of the generations who have gone before us, is by no means beyond the bounds of possibility. This is the potential relationship that a community may have with a patron saint. A gentle familiarity.
A church with a dedication to the Magdalene might well have a similar set of possibilities. This community has perhaps a little more historical sorting out to do than most of the Scriptural saints since it is clear that in the popular imagination several characters have found themselves conflated into one as both legend and Scriptural commentary developed. And that one was very remarkable indeed. She had much to do and much to live down. She had the most significant role possible at the resurrection. She clearly was very close personally to the Lord. The legends would have her later travelling a great deal and the south of France boasts no fewer than three Mary Magdalene shinbones in major pilgrimage churches. That is achievement in itself I would have thought. Her beautiful flowing Titian hair which is the way we can recognise her iconographically, speaks also of a freedom and an unconventionality that is both refreshing and attractive as well as sounding some warning. In short, there is much to explore here: there is opportunity for reflection; there is here a worthy companion for the spiritual journey provided and offered for a community of faith. Today we are celebrating that relationship with this specific parish church here in central Adelaide. The choosing of this patronage for this mission church must surely have been intentional.
However the Magdalene story is told or received there are going to be at least three major aspects: new and transformed life, relationship, and the resurrection proclamation. In responding to her call to be a disciple her own life was healed and turned around, her particular gifts were reshaped and reoffered. You get the distinct impression that, like the beloved disciple, there is more to be known than we are told in the Scriptures about this Mary. But she was the one who was weeping in the Garden that morning after, she was the one with the respectful but nonetheless pet name for the Lord, she was the one who would not hesitate to touch him with care and concern. She was the one first given the chance and sent to proclaim the wonderful Easter Day good news.
These three aspects might well provide the basis for an intentional reflection on the part of this community by way of a spiritual stock take, both individually and corporately. New and transformed life, relationship, and proclamation.
A healthy and robust reconsideration of where this parish might stand under such an examination might in turn be helpful in the continuing careful task of positioning this community in these very challenging and hard times to be Christians — very hard times to be Anglicans. We bother because we believe it is indeed worth it. We persevere perhaps because we have found ways of sitting more lightly with some things we might have at another time deeply anguished over. But we do seek and we do need the clearer discernment of what it is about us that first needs to be healed or renewed, what it is in our closest relationships with each other and with our God in Jesus Christ that is to be honoured and reaffirmed and strengthened, and what is that Good News that is to be shared and lived out.
This community under the patronage of Mary Magdalene has from the outset had a particular concern for the poor and the needy. It is a small building on a back street, not in a fancy part of town. To this day that care and support continues at the very heart of what this place is, right alongside a care for the beauty and the integrity of worship and prayer. In the best traditions of the Catholic Revival of the 19th century this has been and is a place where the faith is celebrated, where service is offered and community is shared.
I take it that this stands. But what is further needed in times like these is an ever-deeper assurance and clarity in the nature of the Good News that is both proclaimed and lived out here. That is what I was alluding to when I just now referred to 'the continuing and careful task of positioning this community'. A Christian community in these times is increasingly called upon to make difficult and confronting choices. You have as a parish experienced some of this pain yourselves.
What is needed?: to circle the wagons and bolt the doors — to defend and protect and to preserve? I suspect that that sort of positioning will ultimately simply see a very slow death. But the practical living out of an understanding of 'the wideness of God's mercy', to use that phrase from a wonderful hymn of our tradition, will mean the gathering of a community that has a transparent and evident generosity of spirit, a community which is welcoming and including and inclusive. That today in the climate of an institution that is at best less than clear on the message being sent, especially very sadly for those of our number whose orientation is to same sex relations, is certainly going to result in a positioning. It will also bring criticism, or perhaps even persecution.
But there is no doubt that this is the issue of the day, whether we like it or not. And perhaps a gentle starting point might be a reflection on the fundamental repositioning that Paul himself undertook in the mission to the gentiles, as in Galatians 3: the declaring of all the great dividing points of that first century culture to be rendered invisible to God — religious background, cultural practice, race, ethnicity, gender, whether one was slave or free — all baptised in Christ Jesus, he declared, are one. Much of today's Church appears to be wanting to draw our attention to a previously missed footnote to this verse: 'yes everyone except... .' Is there yet a sub-portion of humanity outside God's superabundant grace in Christ Jesus? St Mary Magdalene might well have something to say to the Lord on that one. New and transformed life, relationship, and proclamation.
Revd Dr John Davis, Vicar, St Peter's Eastern Hill Melbourne.
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