December Nineteenth

Jesus Appears To Mary

Meanwhile Mary was standing close outside the tomb, weeping. Still weeping, she leant forward into the tomb, and perceived two angels clothed in white sitting there, where the body of Jesus had been lying, one where the head and the other where the feet had been.

“Why are you weeping?” asked the angels.

“They have taken my Master away,” she answered, “and I do not know where they have laid him.”

After saying this, she turned round, and looked at Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.

“Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” he asked.

Supposing him to be the gardener, Mary answered:

“If it was you, Sir, who carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away myself.”

“Mary!” said Jesus.

She turned round, and exclaimed in Hebrew:

“Rabboni!” (or, as we should say, Teacher).

“Do not hold me,” Jesus said; “for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my Brothers, and tell them that I am ascending to him who is my Father and their Father, my God and their God.”

Mary of Magdala went and told the disciples that she had seen the Master, and that he had said this to her.

Jesus Appears To The Apostles

In the evening of the same day—the first day of the week—after the doors of the room, in which the disciples were, had been shut for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said: “Peace be with you”; after which he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Master. Again Jesus said to them: ” Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me as his Messenger, so I am sending you.”

After saying this, he breathed on them, and said:

“Receive the Holy Spirit; if you remit any one’s sins, they have been remitted; and, if you retain them, they have been retained.”

—John.

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