not touch me (any longer), for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say to them: I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God." He did not prevent her from embracing His feet in the outburst of her joy, but He tells her it must come to an end; she shall see Him again on other occassions; not yet is He gone to Heaven; nor can He go at once; a most important work is to be completed first-the foundation of His Churchand she shall help in the work. Therefore, she is to go now and tell His brethren: "I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God."

Such is the trying duty of Thy friends, O Jesus; having found Thee after much agony, they have to quit Thee again and go to work. But we may rest assured of happiness. We work for the Lord, that Lord, Who, despite the crimes of earth, delights in being with the children of men and being one of them; for even now in His state of glory He calls them His brethren: declaring thereby that all men by divine adoption shall become children of God and, thus, His brethren. Such is the aim of God's prodigal love and our highest destiny.

Jesus addressed these words to a woman, a former public sinner. Mary is charged with announcing His glorious resurrection and to confirm the divine adoption.

Elated with joy over the vision, she hastens to tell the disciples, who are all downcast: "I have seen the Lord and these things He said to me." But nothing can persuade them, neither her most ardent assertions, nor her exuberant happiness, nor those words that could proceed but from the heart of Him Who had given them so many proofs of His love.

Their obstinate incredulity resists. Who knows, but in their eyes she is still the sinful woman? They never understood the pardon of the Saviour nor the heroism of that nature. They are still vulgar-minded and full of cowardice.

But what does it matter? Mary has fulfilled her mission: they may believe or not, she has seen and she has heard the Master!

If at times we zealously endeavor to lead sinners back to God, to inspire them with love for Christ, let us not be surprised by the coldness and indifference we meet with; let us not even wonder at any contempt or

hostility we may encounter. Happy in the possession of truth and having done our duty, we may let time and circumstances, let God Himself, do the rest. When we consider with what contempt Mary was treated since her conversion, how much distrust and unfriendliness she had to bear; when we recall what doubts must have saddened her on her return to the sepulchre,—we shall be glad to submit to a similar treatment; for as sure as the Gospel has announced to the world what Mary did at the house of Simon and at the sepulchre to honor the Saviour, so Heaven will publish eternally what we have done to honor the Saviour in His churches, in teaching Him to His brethren, in defending Him before the world; and the labors we endure, the rebuffs and insults we suffer for His sake, shall be as many jewels in our crown of immortality.

THE HOLY WOMEN AT THE SEPULCHRE OF JESUS.

N Golgatha the holy women had seen the Saviour bow His head and give up His ghost, they had

felt His cold body; then they had wrapt it in white linens,—as they imagined, never again to be unwrapt. Sadness preys upon them: He Whom they love, is no more. Not a thought strikes them of the possibility of His resurrection, not one remembers His promise and prophecy.

Not even Mary Magdalen, initiated more deeply than others into the mysteries of His life and death by her symbolic unctions, has understood, or else she has completely forgotten, the words of the Master. His enemies,

though, have not forgotten them. Carefully they had noted them, and now the princes of the priests and Pharisees stand before Pilate, telling him: "Sir, we have remembered that that seducer said while He was alive yet: After three days I will rise again. Command therefore the sepulchre to be guarded until the third day."*

Jesus, Thy enemies are still afraid of Thee, in spite of their victory. They have torn Thee and nailed Thee to the cross; they have seen Thee buried, and yet they are not satisfied; they feel restless and uneasy. "Let His body be watched," as if to say: He is

alive still.

This fear shall henceforth be the lot of all the Saviour's enemies. His foes of to-day are afraid even of His likeness. The crucifix must be removed from the eyes of the children at school, from the view of jurors and judges in the court room, and, in the hospitals, out of the reach of the dying, lest they, by kissing the wounds of the crucified Redeemer, may feel at ease in their last hour by the renewed hope in God's mercy.

Crucified God, there is no longer room for

*) Matt., XXVII. 62-66.