Holy Week 2014: Wednesday

And so we see the Magi's gift finally put to its use. It is part of human nature to try and preserve the dead for as long as possible. It is an art of futility since dust we are and to the dust we shall return. Yet still we cling to the memories of those whom we love, keeping them alive in our hearts when we know we can see them no more. The memories are painful and yet we cannot be without them.

However, the Lord tells Mary Magdalene and, by extension, us that we must not cling on to Him. We have lost all physical contact with Our Lord. We have no image, no bodily remains, nothing by which we can say that He was this human being with this trait, or that trait. He was buried in the hope that He would be forgotten and that His inconvenient teaching would die with Him. Not content with destroying the man, they also sought to destroy His legacy too lest the Church could take root. The seed has died and is buried.

I adore thee, O Lord Jesu Christ, laid in the sepulchre, embalmed with myrrh and spices: I beseech thee that thy death may be my life. Amen