Sunday of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women (Acts 6:1–7; Mk. 15:43–16:8)

Tireless women! They gave no sleep to their eyes and no slumber to their eyelids until they had found the Beloved! But the men seem to dig in their heels: they go to the tomb, see it empty, and remain in perplexity as to what it might mean, because they had not seen Him himself. But does this mean they had less love than the women? No—in them was a reasoning love, afraid of error on account of the high value of that love and its object. When they too saw and touched, each of them—not with the tongue, as Thomas did, but in the heart—confessed: ”My Lord and my God” (Jn. 20:28), and from then on nothing could separate them from the Lord. The myrrh-bearing women and the apostles are the image of two aspects of our life: feeling and reason. Without feeling, life is not life; without reason, life is blind—much energy is spent and little sound fruit is produced. The two must be joined together. Let feeling go ahead and stir things up; but let reason determine the time, place, and manner—the general practical arrangement—of what the heart suggests. Inwardly the heart leads the way, but in practice reason does. And when the senses have been trained through the discernment of good and evil, then perhaps one may be able to trust the heart alone; just as from a living tree shoots, flowers, and fruits go forth of themselves, so from the heart only good will then begin to arise, wisely fitting itself into the course of our life.