in Him even had He appeared to them: their guilt would only have been increased.
The lies of the chief priests as to the Resurrection were very malicious, but they were also very stupid. If the watchers were asleep, how could they have seen the disciples stealing the Body? And if they had not seen it done, how could they bear witness to the fact? Sleeping witnesses are no witnesses. Besides this, the disciples were so crushed and cowed that they scarcely dared to show themselves at all; so how could they have had the courage to force their way into a sepulchre closely guarded by soldiers? Why did they not do so during the first night while the tomb was unguarded? And had the soldiers been really asleep, would they not have been awakened by the moving, in the silence of the night, of the heavy stone which closed the door of the Sepulchre? And why, finally, did not the chief priests and scribes arrest the disciples and put them on trial for the alleged violation of the grave and stealing of the Body? Why did they institute no inquiry as to where the Body had been taken?
Application. You have been spiritually raised from the dead by holy Baptism; therefore you ought to walk in the newness of a holy life, in order that you may some day rise up with a glorified body, and live for ever with Christ. “Let not, therefore, sin reign in your mortal body”, says St. Paul, “so as to obey the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of iniquity unto sin: but present yourselves to God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of justice unto God” (Rom. 6, 12 — 13). Hold your body in honour, resist evil passions, and do not use the members of your body for sinful purposes, but use them for the practice of good works.
Chapter LXXIX.
JESUS APPEARS TO MARY MAGDALEN AND PETER.
[John 20, 1 — 18. Mat. 28, 1 — 15. Mark 16, 1 — 10. Luke 24, 1 — 12.]
NOW, Mary Magdalen, seeing that the stone was rolled away from the Sepulchre, and noticing that the Body was not there, hastened[1] back to Jerusalem, to tell the news to the
- ↑ Hastened. She left the other women at the Sepulchre. A great fear seized her as she looked into the tomb and saw that her Lord’s Body was not there. Without wailing a moment she hastened to find Peter and John to tell them the terrible news : “They (His enemies) have taken away the Lord out of the Sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid Him !” It never seemed to occur to her that He had risen from the dead.
