The supreme instance of all history that the voice of the people is not necessarily the Voice of God was the moment when a mob passed beneath a Cross, flinging at the helpless figure there upon it the blistering sneer of the ages: “He trusted in God; let him now deliver him” (Matthew 27:43).

Two days later, early in the morning, a converted sinner is found walking in a cemetery - she whose heart had been captured by Him without, as other men had done, laying it waste. She was in search of a tomb and a dead body which she hoped she might anoint with spices.

The idea of the Resurrection did not seem to enter her mind - she who herself had risen from a tomb sealed by the seven devils of sin. Finding the tomb empty, she broke again into a fountain of tears. No one who weeps ever looks upward. With her eyes cast down as the brightness of the early sunrise swept over the dew-covered grass, she vaguely perceived someone near her, who asked: “Woman, why weepest thou?” (John 20:15)

Mary, thinking it might have been the gardener, said, “Because they have taken away My Lord and I do not know where they have laid Him.”

The figure before her spoke only one word, one name, and in a tone so sweet and ineffably tender that it could be the only unforgettable voice of the world - and that one word was “Mary.”

No one could ever say “Mary” as He said it. In that moment she knew Him. Dropping into the Aramaic of her mother’s speech, she answered but one word: “Rabboni! (Master!).” And she fell at His Feet - she was always there, anointing them at a supper, standing before them at a Cross and now kneeling before Him in the Glory of an Easter morn.

(excerpt from “Our Grounds for Hope”)

Reflection on the Archbishop’s words:

As we continue in the Easter Season, the Gospel stories often present to us the figure of the woman who, after the Blessed Virgin Mary, was most faithful to Christ. She is Mary Magdalene. In his meditation, Archbishop Sheen contrasts the blasphemous shouts of the unbelieving mob near the cross of Jesus on Good Friday with the believing heart of Mary Magdalene. The mob shouted that if Jesus truly was the Son of God and placed His life in the hands of the Father, then the Father should deliver Him then and there on Calvary. We know the Father did not take His Son down off the cross until He had laid down His life for us, or else He would never have saved us from our sins.

Mary, in contrast, with a faith that was intensified by a love that could only be described as “blind,” did not surrender her attachment to Christ even in death. She, like the other disciples of Jesus, did not yet grasp the meaning of Jesus’ three predictions of His suffering, death and resurrection, nor the Scriptures that foretold that Jesus first had to suffer death before He could enter into His glory. So she goes to the tomb, intending to anoint the dead body of Jesus that had been buried so hastily on Good Friday. But because she sought Jesus crucified, she found Jesus risen. She did not immediately recognize Him, the Gospel tells us, thinking Him to be the gardener. She only recognized Him when Jesus spoke her name as only He could: “Mary.” Our Lord had said that He was the Good Shepherd and that He called each of His sheep by name, and they would recognize His voice. (Cf. Jn 10:1 ff) When she did, she went to embrace His feet as a gesture of her love for Him.

Archbishop Sheen tells us that Mary was always embracing the feet of Christ. The first time was when she wept over His feet and anointed them while He was at supper in the house of a Pharisee. It was then that Jesus had brought her spiritually back to life, or as the Archbishop said, he raised her “from a tomb sealed by the seven devils in sin.” These were the tears of a penitent! Mary embraced the feet of Jesus a second time as she knelt at the foot of the cross and smothered the nailed feet of Christ with her kisses and tears over His great suffering. These were the tears of compassion. Finally, Mary’s tears in not finding the body of Christ but rather an empty tomb were turned into tears of joy as she embraced the feet of the Master Who had called her, “Mary.” It was truly an Easter morning!!!!

Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR
Vice-Postulator of the Cause