But Magdalen and the other two Maries went, as I have said, to the sepulchre, with the ointments. When, then, they had gone beyond the gate of the city, they recalled to memory the trials and sufferings of their Master, and at all the places where anything of importance had happened they stopped, we may imagine, a little, kneeling down and kissing the ground, and giving vent to groans and sighs, saying, “Here we met Him with the Cross on His shoulder, when His mother almost died with trouble. Here He turned Himself to the women. Here He laid down His Cross through weariness ; on that stone He rested a while. Here so cruelly and harshly they goaded Him on, and made Him go quickly, almost run. Here they stripped Him of His raiment Here they crucified Him !” And then, with great crying and floods of tears, they cast themselves down upon their faces, and salute the Cross ; still red with the Precious Blood. Then rising, and going towards the Sepulchre, they said,1 “Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre ?” And on looking up, they saw the stone rolled away, and the Angel of the Lord sitting upon it, who said to them, “Fear not,” etc., as in the Gospel is recorded. But they, disappointed of their hope — for they thought to find the Lord’s Body — not attending to the words of the Angel, returned terrified to the disciples, saying that the Lord’s Body had been taken away. Then Peter and John ran to the sepulchre.
Observe carefully all that happened. These Apostles run ; Magdalen and her companions run after them ; all run to seek their Lord, who was their heart and their soul ; they run with much trust, much fervour, much anxiety. But when they had come to the tomb and looked into it, they found not the Body, but they saw the linen clothes and napkin, and departed. Compassionate them, for they are in great affliction. They seek their Lord, and find Him not; and they know not where further to look for Him; therefore, sorrowing and weeping, they went away.
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Footnotes
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S. Mark xvi. 3. ↩