THE PAINTINGS IN DETAIL

THE SUCCESSION OF MARY MAGDALENE
© Janet McKenzie

COMPANION Mary Magdalene with Joanna and Susanna	THE ONE SENT Mary Magdalene with Jesus, the Christ	APOSTLE OF THE APOSTLES Mary Magdalene with The Beloved Disciple and Peter

THE SUCCESSION OF MARY MAGDALENE

Here is Mary Magdalene for the church of the twenty-first century as a template for Magdalene Christianity conformed and faithful to Jesus’ vision of the realm of God in which all are included and justice reigns.

Nearly forty years of biblical and extra-canonical studies demonstrate the primacy of Mary Magdalene in the community that formed around Jesus. Mary Magdalene is companion, benefactor, leader, witness, mystic, prophet, wisdom teacher, comforter, preacher, apostle and successor.

She is presented here for the women of the church today who teach the children, raise the funds, clean the pews, chair the meetings, run the hospitals, comfort the frightened, the sick and the dying, who work for justice, witness for peace, preach the Word and preside at the Eucharist.

Moved by the iconic power and grace of the women portrayed in Janet McKenzie’s paintings, Barbara Marian , an instructor and mentor for lay ministers nationwide, commissioned the artist to revisit the scriptures and to illuminate the role of women in the story of salvation.

McKenzie’s EPIPHANY and MARY WITH THE MIDWIVES came forth from her reflections with Marian on the Gospel stories that validate and confirm the call of women in the church today.

THE SUCCESSION OF MARY MAGDALENE is the fruit of McKenzie’s conversations with Marian over a three-year period.

The Jesus community and medieval Christians and artists understood and portrayed Mary Magdalene as the most favored companion of Jesus, as well as the first of his apostle-successors.

THE SUCCESSION OF MARY MAGDALENE offers an alternative to Peter’s hierarchical way of being church--that of the companion disciple modeled by Mary Magdalene--the one who worked side by side with Jesus in his itinerant ministry, stayed with him through his dying on the cross and was the first one sent by him to testify that he is risen and remains forever the animating Spirit in the community of believers.

Center Panel: THE ONE SENT: Mary Magdalene with Jesus, the Christ
42” x 54” oil on canvas

Mary Magdalene and Christ are seated side by side as visionaries and spiritual teachers with their hands open in the universal gesture of prayer – of gifts offered and received – as icons of the sacred. Jesus, the Christ, sent to live among us as The Word made Flesh and Mary Magdalene, the first one sent to proclaim the Resurrection, are models for the community of disciple-companions sent “to the ends of the earth” to tell and become the Good News for all.

Left Panel: COMPANION: Mary Magdalene with Joanna and Susanna
42” x 54” oil on canvas

Luke’s Gospel (Luke 8:1-3) tells us these three women traveled with Jesus and the male disciples proclaiming the good news and that the women “provided for them out of their own resources.” Of the women identified, Mary Magdalene is named first indicating her leadership.

In the Gospel of Philip Mary Magdalene is referred to as the companion of Jesus (tef-koinonos). The Greek word koinonos is dense with meaning: companion in faith, coworker, business partner, comrade, the friend who shares everything, including interests, material possessions and meals.

Right Panel: APOSTLE OF THE APOSTLES:
Mary Magdalene with The Beloved Disciple and Peter
Add " 42" x 54" oil on canvas

The Gospel of John tells us that the Risen Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene and told her “Go to my brothers and tell them “I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17). She is seen here as in medieval paintings of her as preacher with the characteristic gesture of forefinger raised toward the heavens, proclaiming the Resurrection to Peter and “the one whom Jesus loved.” The Beloved Disciple, who is sometimes understood as a symbol for the Johannine community, is listening to her but Peter is not.