Mary Magdalene and the Prophetic Eye: Inceptual Thinking as a Gift of the Holy Spirit
From the Light of Christ to the Primordial Wisdom of Myth: Rediscovering Prophecy Beyond Calculation
Introduction to Prophecy and Its Role in the Church
We are exploring Mary Magdalene’s gift of inceptual thinking. It is a prophetic mode of Being. Prophecy in the New Testament is a gift from the Holy Spirit for strengthening the Church with its faithful. The prophet is not a fortune-teller; he or she communicates strength to the Body of Christ.
But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging, and comfort." (1 Corinthians 14:3)
Prophecy is a preferred gift.
“I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified.” (1 Corinthians 14:5)
The fruit of prophecy is a conversion of sinners that opens their hearts to God.
“If an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare.” (1 Corinthians 14:24-25)
Prophecy is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
“To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit... to another prophecy.” (1 Corinthians 12:8-10)
We are to desire the gift of prophecy.
“Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.” (1 Corinthians 14:1)
The prophetic voice “sees” and proclaims. It is obedient to the silent Being of faith before which it stands. Prophecy does not calculate; it faithfully testifies to what it sees.
Mary Magdalene: A Model of Prophetic Being
Magdalene was an essential New Testament prophet in this sense. She “saw” the truth, beauty, and goodness of the true Christ while washing his feet with tears, sitting before him as Martha complained, anointing him a second time with expensive perfumes, grieving at the foot of his cross, weeping at his tomb, and hearing his resurrected voice. “Mary!”
What did she see? Presumably, she saw the same Jesus that the Pharisees scorned and ridiculed. It was the same Jesus that even the disciples had difficulty “seeing,” except for Peter at Caesarea Philippi:
”When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’” (Matthew 16:13 and 16:16)
To strengthen the faithful, we must “see” Jesus with the prophetic, inceptual mind.
Magdalene “saw” and felt deep contrition. She loved much. The fruit of her inceptual thinking, her “seeing” in the prophetic mode of Being, was complete and total repentance.
Understanding Inceptual Thinking
How can we explain Magdalene’s gift in a less metaphysically planned manner? How is it experienced? What is the “experience of the experience” of inceptual thinking and a prophetic mode of being?
We will turn to Martin Heidegger and ancient Greek mythology for resonance. The ancient Greeks did not yet know the one true God. However, as Heidegger knew, their mythology held the secret to receiving the natural gift of inceptual thinking. The Holy Spirit supernaturally elevates this gift that we might profess, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
The following is a step out of the metaphysical and into the ancient world of primordial mythology which prefigures the coming of the light of Christ and the Holy Spirit’s gift of prophetic “inceptual” thinking. The reader will be left to contemplate their own “experience of this experience” in the world.
Bridging Philosophy and Theology: Heidegger’s Insights
Heidegger insists in Introduction to Phenomenological Research that philosophy, as the phenomenology of Being, is primordial to science. Many attribute him to the saying, “science shines by a borrowed light.” This means that science is a mere tool for quantification and control of the material world. Science does not, and cannot, account for the pre-existing world of meaning and understanding. Science can explain how a tree grows from seedling to maturity, but it cannot account for its “givenness” as an appearance of meaning. To interpret the given is beyond the scope of science. To cover up the given through metaphysics, as a science of thinking, is, to Heidegger’s great consternation, the failure of “philosophy” from Plato and Aristotle forward. Heidegger went further back in time to the pre-Socratics who still understood the world as a dynamic liminal space between the hidden and the apparent, the divine and the mortal.
Mythological Prefiguration of Prophecy
An example is the Titaness goddess Eos known as Dawn in the Iliad. The story depicts Dawn as being “rosy-fingered” and “rising from bed” to “ascend high Olympus” bringing light to gods and mortals alike.
“The goddess Dawn ascended high Olympus, portending light to Zeus and all the others who live forever.” ~ Homer. The Iliad (p. 27). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
Application and Reflection
For Heidegger, when intuition and feeling come together, we receive the gift of a prophetic, inceptual “eye.” Then we understand and find meaning in the silent given. In this sense, he could posit that the ancients who interpreted Dawn as an embodied gestalt were primordial, not inferior, to the metaphysical sciences observing the planet’s relationship with the sun. The science of the rising sun is not superior to Olympus. It merely quantifies when Dawn will rise from bed and “ascend high Olympus.” The science of dawn does not shine by its own light. It shines by Dawn’s “borrowed light.”
I used ChatGPT and ProWritingAid™ to assist in editing my original work on this piece which included help in developing some descriptive content.
When prompted with “Have any notable Catholic saints used the Greek gods of mythology as allegories?” the ChatGPT-generated text produced the following response:
Yes, some Catholic saints and theologians have used the Greek gods of mythology as allegories to explain Christian concepts or as a means of engaging with a predominantly pagan audience in their time. This approach was part of a broader effort to reconcile and Christianize classical knowledge. Here are some notable examples:
1. St. Augustine (354–430)
Works: The City of God
Augustine critiques pagan mythology and the worship of Greek and Roman gods but also draws on their stories allegorically. For instance, he interprets the myths as reflecting humanity's spiritual struggles and moral failings, framing them as precursors to the truths fulfilled in Christianity.
2. St. Clement of Alexandria (150–215)
Works: Protrepticus (Exhortation to the Greeks) and Stromata
Clement used Greek mythology as a stepping stone to introduce Greek-speaking pagans to Christianity. He treated the myths as symbolic stories that could hint at higher truths, interpreting the Greek gods allegorically to demonstrate how they pointed toward the Christian God.
3. St. Gregory of Nazianzus (329–390)
Approach: As a rhetorician and theologian, Gregory occasionally referenced Greek myths in his works, not to endorse them but to show their inadequacy compared to the truth of the Gospel. He used these stories to illustrate moral lessons and the human longing for God.
4. St. Jerome (347–420)
Context: While translating the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate), Jerome engaged with classical texts and occasionally referenced mythological stories. He saw value in their moral or allegorical applications when aligned with Christian teachings.
5. Dante Alighieri (1265–1321)
While not a saint, Dante is a pivotal Catholic figure. In The Divine Comedy, he integrates Greek gods and mythological figures, such as Minos and Charon, to symbolize theological truths about sin, judgment, and divine justice.
Theological Rationale:
Catholic saints often adopted the allegorical method, rooted in the tradition of thinkers like Philo of Alexandria, who sought to interpret ancient myths in ways that harmonized with their faith. This method allowed them to:
Engage with a classical audience familiar with Greek mythology.
Illustrate Christian truths through familiar symbolic language.
Show the superiority of Christian theology by reinterpreting pagan stories in a Christ-centered framework.
These efforts highlight the Church's broader strategy of assimilating and transforming elements of classical culture into a Christian worldview.