The DaVinci Code: Mr. and Mrs. Jesus? Ha!

(Third of three columns) By Bishop Emil Wcela

Reprinted from The Long Island Catholic, May 10, 2006

                The real Mary Magdalene The Church's Gospels tell us that Mary Magdalene came from a city named Magdala, hence her name. Magdala was near the Sea of Galilee on which Jesus' fishermen followers made their living. We also learn that because of Jesus, seven demons had gone out from Mary. Jesus had cither freed her from actual demonic possession or cured her of some affliction that the world of the time attributed to evil spirits. After that, Mary appears as one of a group of women who accompany Jesus and his band of disciples on their preaching travels and provide for their necessities.

                Mary is a witness to the death and burial of Jesus and, most importantly, is a primary witness to the resurrection. For a fact to be established, it required witnesses to attest to it. Women in that society had little value as witnesses so it is striking that Mary Magdalene has such a role.

                Much later, in the 6th century, Mary Magdalene begins to be identified in Christian tradition with the sinful woman who anoints the feet of Jesus with precious ointment during a banquet at the house of Simon, the Pharisee, and then wipes his feel with her hair. The Pharisee complains about Jesus letting himself be touched by a sinner. Jesus responds by commending the love of the woman and sending her in peace with her sins forgiven. However, there is no basis for this identification and so the long-held understanding of Mary Magdalene as a penitent sinner is not in the Gospels. Perhaps that emphasis has obscured her real role as a witness to Jesus both during his preaching mission and at his death, burial and resurrection.

Was Jesus married?

                There are absolutely no indications in the Gospels, nor anywhere else, that Jesus was married. Jesus' family is mentioned in the Gospels, but never a wife or children. The names of women who accompanied Jesus on his journeys and to his death and burial are listed, but none is ever mentioned as his wife.

                After the death of Jesus, it is "James, the brother of the Lord," (Galatians 1:19) — the meaning of "brother" here is a topic for another time — who plays a leading role in the Jerusalem Church, not any supposed wife or children of Jesus, Hence, the marriage of Jesus lo Mary Magdalene stands on no foundation whatsoever.

                One of the ironies is that keeping up with the theories and claims can leave one with head spinning. On the one hand, "The Da Vinci Code" has Jesus married, and the long-haired person sitting at Jesus' right in DaVinci's famous painting of the Last Supper is not the Beloved Disciple but Mary Magdalene. On the other hand, some make the claim that the emphasis on the Beloved Disciple shows that Jesus was homosexual.

So where are we?

                 Lots of people have read "The DaVinci Code." Lots of people will undoubtedly see the movie. The important thing to remember is that, despite the more recent suggestions of Dan Brown that his novel is based on fact and the refusal of Ron Howard, the movie producer, to show a disclaimer that this movie is a work of fiction, it is just that. The long tradition of the Church tells about Jesus, the Son of God, who became man, suffered and died out of love for us. The long tradition of the Church tells us about the early followers of Jesus with all their heroism and all their warts. One of these followers was Mary from the town of Magdala who had been cured by Jesus; accompanied Jesus and his band during his mission, along with other women; then was present for his death and burial and a witness to his resurrection. Nothing in "The DaVinci Code," book or movie, that throws doubt on these beliefs has any basis.

                I have a challenge to anyone who has read, or will see, "The DaVinci Code." Presuming that the movie will last about two hours, I challenge you to spend that same amount of time reading the Gospels. Perhaps you might begin with the shortest, the Gospel of Mark. Don't just read the Gospel. Think about it, about what it says about Jesus, about what you believe, about what difference it makes in your life. If enough people do that, perhaps all this hullabaloo over "The DaVinci Code" will have accomplished something good after all.

                If you want more information on these matters, on Opus Dei, on DaVinci and art, try the Catholic Communication Campaign's Web site www.JesusDecoded.com, either directly or through the diocesan Website.

The Da Vinci Code:  Who tells us about Jesus?

(Second of three columns) By Bishop Emil Wcela

                Last week, I explained how the four Gospels that we have in our Bibles and that we read at Mass came to be. However, the communities of Christians that were the seed ground for these Gospels were not the only ones grappling with the mystery of Jesus Christ. Some groups, for example, held ideas that pre-dated Christianity. For them, the highest value and the means to salvation was spiritual insight or knowledge - hence the name given to them.  "Gnostics," from the Greek word for knowledge, "gno-sis." Some people who already knew of Jesus tried to work "Gnosticism" into their understanding of Jesus and others who were Gnostics and learned of Jesus probably tried to assimilate him into what they already believed. However it happened, there were people who claimed to follow Jesus yet saw him not as a savior who redeemed us by his death and called us to faith but as a revealer of knowledge by which we are saved.

                Early Christian writers refer to the "gospels" of Gnostics and other splinter groups. There were also gospels produced by more or less orthodox Christian communities. We have a good number of these gospels, or parts of them. There is a Gospel of Nicodemus, the Infancy Gospel of James, the Gospel of Thomas, etc. These gospels are later than our Gospels, probably from the second and third centuries.

                These gospels tell stories about Jesus or, if they are of Gnostic origin, are mostly supposed sayings that lead to knowledge and salvation. Anne Rice, of vampire fame, has used some stories from the Gospel of Thomas in her book, "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt," a fictional and rever­ent novel of the youth of Jesus. One story has Jesus forming sparrows out of mud and then bringing them to life. Another tells how a boy runs by Jesus and accidentally knocks him. Jesus strikes the boy dead, but later brings him back to life. Ms. Rice fits these strange legends into how she imagines what was happening in the boy Jesus, who was God and yet was truly human, as he grew in wisdom and knowledge.

How did we end up with only four Gospels?

                The Gospels of Matthew. Mark, Luke  and John did not come with a stamp clearly marking them as inspired by God. Why then do we accept them as God's word, while we view all the others as legends or [pious traditions or false paths that may be of some value for historical information but are little or no help in our understanding of Jesus?

                Evidently there was a gradual process of selection by which some books were accepted by orthodox Christian communities and others left aside. One qualification was that the gospel was recognized as coming from the time of the apostles. A second was that the gospel in question served well a Christian community or communities. It was of great importance to them in forming their own people and in .presenting their faith to others. And finally, it was in harmony with what the communities believed about Jesus from the teaching and preaching in which they had been formed. By 150 A.D., only the four Gospels that we know were accepted by the Christian Churches as authoritative. The others had fallen out of use, except in groups now considered heretical, or they may have served as devotional reading. We believe that the Holy Spirit guided this process.

TheDaVinci Code's Gospel

                "The DaVinci Code" relies heavily on the Gnostic gospels. An isolated passage in the pseudo Gospel of Philip speaks of Jesus kissing Mary Magdalene. This and her importance in Gnostic gospels is the basis for the marriage claim. The version of this gospel that we have dates to about 350 A.D., though it is a copy of an earlier document. It was not accepted by the early Church as a true picture of Jesus. The Gnostics would probably be surprised to find anyone taking kissing as a sign of erotic love. For them, it probably had no other significance than the belief that knowledge can be passed on through close personal contact. "The DaVinci Code" also claims that the Church covered up Mary Magdalene's importance in favor of the primary role of Peter. However, if it tried, it didn't do a very good job. Our Gospels are very clear on the crucial role of Mary Magdalene as a prime witness to the resur­rection.

                In next week's column, we'll look at the real Mary Magdalene and the unreality of the claim that she and Jesus were married. In the meantime, for more information there's the Web site www.JesusDecodcd.com, accessible directly or through our diocesan Web site.

The Da Vinci Code:  Who tells us about Jesus?

(First of three columns)

By Bishop Emil Wcela

It's coming!!

            It's been a bestseller for three years and now it's going to be a movie. With Tom Hanks as the star, no less. The same Tom Hanks who did such great work in films like "Forrest Gump" and "Saving Private Ryan." It's got this titillating claim that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, that they had children, that their line con­tinues today. It also has bad guys from the Catholic Church trying to keep this awful secret from the world. It's "The DaVinci Code!" How can it lose?

            I read the book and as a detective story it's OK — but, by me, not on the same level as P.D. James or Elizabeth George. I finished it mostly out of a sense of duty because I knew lots of people were reading it.

            If it is more or less successful as a detective story, it's a total disaster as far as "facts" go. To see why, we need to fill in some background.

How we know about Jesus

            What we know about Jesus comes mainly from the four Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — that have been part of the Church's heritage for over 1900 years. How did we get those Gospels?

            Jesus didn't write a handbook of his teaching when he traveled through Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. He preached, he taught, he did some extraordinary things. At the time of his death, around the year 30, what his followers had was the remembrance of what he said and did.

            For the next 30 years, till about the year 60, Jesus' disciples carried his message to wherever they traveled. Now they believed he had risen from the dead. Things that were puzzling or left them uneasy in his lifetime appeared altogether different. Not only did they see Jesus through the lens of their belief that he had indeed risen to new and glorious life with the Father, they also understood that his teaching had to speak to what was happening in their lives and the lives of those to whom they brought the message. Their preaching became not only the memory of Jesus and his words and deeds, but its relevance for their world.

            By the year 60 or so, those who had known Jesus in his lifetime were dying out. It was also becoming clearer that Jesus' second coming in glory to judge and end the world might not be near, as many had believed. The community needed to preserve what they knew about Jesus and their understanding of what his teaching meant. In different places where there were historians, men sat down to write their stories of Jesus, as they had heard that story told in their community. Each writer took the material he had been taught and arranged and adapted it to guide the community in knowing Jesus and his mission from the Father. These accounts of Jesus and what he said and did got the name of "Gospel." The earliest Gospel, from some time in the 60's, is the one we call the Gospel of Mark. The latest, the Gospel of John, dates to the 90's. There are strong hints that before the Gospels were written, there may also have been a kind of handbook of sayings of Jesus, now lost, as an aid to Christian missionaries in their preaching.

            Three of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, are fairly similar, but each still has its own way of telling the story. The gospel of John is rather different from the others. For example, the Gospel of Mark portrays Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane as the Man of Sorrows. His sleeping disciples cannot stay awake to pray with him. The betrayer identifies him with a kiss before he is hauled away. In John, Jesus is totally in control of the situ­ation. When the police and soldiers come to arrest him, he identifies himself and they fall to the ground. Instead of asking for support from his followers, he speaks up to arrange for their freedom.

            The Catholic Church, and Christian Churches generally, believe that these four Gospels, and these alone, are inspired by God.

            What has this to do with "The DaVinci Code?" This is necessary information for knowing how to approach the other "gospels," those that are the supposed sources of the fantastic plot of "The DaVinci Code." More about that in the column next week. For those who want to do some exploring right now, the Catholic Communication Campaign is sponsoring a Web site, www.JesusDecodcd.com, accessible directly or through the diocesan Web site.

Reprinted from The Long Island Catholic, April 26, 2006