St. Luke of all the gospel writers stresses the role of women in the ministry of Jesus as among the first followers, prominently among them Mary Magdalene. She is called “the apostle to the apostles” because of her witness of the Risen Jesus. In the preaching of the Church over the centuries she has gotten a reputation as a “fallen woman” because of a comment in St. Luke’s gospel, “seven demons had gone out” from her. But what if those demons were not sexual in nature but in fact things like the demons of a bad self-image or low self-esteem or painful memories from the past. Those kinds of demons are the ones that haunt our lives and Jesus will drive them from us.
