THE FAITHFUL MYRRH-BEARERS

 

Brothers and sisters in Christ—

Last week, before the feast of the Resurrection of Christ, we prayed before the tomb of our Lord, just as His faithful women disciples prayed, who followed the body of Jesus from the Cross to the sepulcher, in which St. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus buried Him.  These faithful women watched as St. Joseph and St. Nicodemus finished the burial rites and then departed.  But they could not leave.  The Holy Gospel tells us that they lingered, for their love compelled them to remain still, without hope, without consolation, before the tomb of the Lord.  The Gospel does not tell us how long they were there, gazing upon the closed entrance to the tomb, filled with abjection and sadness, but, eventually, one by one, they escaped into the darkness of that darkest evening.  Without doubt they went home and fulfilled their obligations for the Jewish Sabbath: lighting the Sabbath lights, and pronouncing the blessing of the light, along with all the other women of Israel: “Blessed be Thou, O Lord, our God, the King of the Universe, Who has commanded us to kindle the Sabbath lights.” With what deep sadness must they have uttered these words, for the Light of the World had been extinguished.  “How has the splendourous sun now set in the grave?” During the Sabbath itself, perhaps these same women returned to the tomb in order to mourn and weep.  When the Sabbath ended, after sunset, they went to buy spices for the body of Jesus, and the next morning they went again to the tomb in order to anoint the body of their beloved Teacher.

     On that morning, the Mystery of the Resurrection was revealed to them on account of their faithfulness in love.  The Holy Gospel tells us that the Mystery of the Resurrection of Christ was revealed first to Mary Magdalen, and then to the other Myrrh-bearing Women, then to the disciples from Emmaus, and finally to the Eleven Apostles, and after a week, to the Holy Apostle Thomas.

     Our Lord Jesus Christ rewarded these women, because their love was very great.  Their love was selfless, for the Eleven Apostles, cowering in fear on account of the recriminations of the Jews, hid, trying to save their lives.  Fear overshadowed and darkened the love of the Eleven, so that they did not believe when the women announced the Lord’s Resurrection to them.  In just the same way, when the Lord had finally appeared to the Apostles, then St. Thomas did not believe.

     For the women, it was easy to believe in the Resurrection of the Lord from the dead, because their love for the Lord Jesus was very great, but the rational minds of the Apostles did not believe, because their love was proportionately small. 

     Similarly, our love for Our Lord Jesus Christ has to be very great if our faith is to survive all the temptations of this world.  To be strong in the spiritual life, our love has to be strong.  But, in order to have a great love for our Lord, we have to have what the saints, spiritual writers and Fathers of the Church call “an interior life.” The “interior life” means the life of prayer that is continuously aware of the presence of God.  The presence of our Lord Jesus Christ is very important, because presence is the beginning of love.  It is not possible to love what is not present (that is either physically present or present in memory). God is a pure spirit, Who must be constantly present in memory.  We can remain in God’s presence through prayer.  For example, when we tell God that we love Him: “My God, I love You.” This kind of prayer is called an “aspiration,” because it expresses our ardent desire.  We are also able to sacrifice our suffering, our frustration and our worry, or even to sacrifice all our little works for the glory of God.