Jesus the Bridegroom and the Church the Bride is a rich and deeply meaningful New Testament image, and marriage is designed to be a sign of the real presence of Jesus in the home and in the Church.

But if a disciple like Mary Magdalene, who was deeply tormented by a squadron of demons and was healed of that, who was a witness to the most important event in the Bible at a time when the testimony of women was routinely ignored, if even she is mentioned twelve times by name in the New Testament and was obviously a leader of significance in the earliest Church, then who is it safe to ignore?