Article July 29, 1933 Issue

"Why weepest thou?"

LUCY BALIAN

In the account of the resurrection given in the twentieth chapter of St. John's Gospel it is recorded that Mary Magdalene was left alone at the sepulcher weeping, and that, stooping down and looking in, she saw two angels, who said, "Woman, why weepest thou?" Her answer was a cry which has gone forth from many a heart since that day: "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." This plaint came from one overburdened with fear, grief, anxiety, and, perhaps, overwhelming loneliness. Undoubtedly Mary was laboring under a sense of loss, thinking of the human Jesus, the loving, compassionate, understanding friend, and looking for an evidence of him in the tomb—in matter. On page 309 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mary Baker Eddy has written, "Pondering on the finite personality of Jesus, the son of man, is not the channel through which we reach the Christ, or Son of God, the true idea of man's divine Principle."

When a loved one passes from our sight, are we not often apt to dwell upon the finite personality which seems to have been lost, instead of knowing the truth and rejoicing in the fact that all we loved in that one is immortal, because it reflects God? What endears our friends to us is not their material personality, but the good they express, the loving and lovable qualities derived from the one Father-Mother God. It is, therefore, God's true idea which we love, and which can never be lost. To Jesus it was not unnatural that Moses and Elias should appear to him and talk with him. He recognized their spiritual identity and individuality as intact, immortal, ever present, and coexistent with God. He knew death to be but a mortal belief, just as all material experience is a mortal belief, and knew that there is no barrier in the consciousness of Love. This exalted him to spiritual communication with them.

The following lines appear on page 67 of our Leader's "Poems":

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