Dr. Augustin Sokolovski
In the Orthodox Church, the second Sunday after Easter is dedicated to the commemoration of the Myrrh-bearing Women. During the liturgy, the Gospel reading is taken from the Gospel according to Mark, chapters 15:43 – 16:8), which recounts the Lord’s death on the cross, Joseph of Arimathea’s visit to Pilate to request Christ’s body, and finally the pilgrimage of the myrrh-bearing women to Jesus’ tomb to anoint the body, which concludes with the announcement of the Resurrection.
The final words of this text are: “They fled from the tomb; fear and dread seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (Mark 16:8). Exegetes point out that these are the final words of the Gospel according to Mark as a whole. The following passage, in which verses 9 through 20 summarize the story of the Risen One’s appearances and the Ascension, as well as the departure to begin preaching, is a later addition to the text.
The historical ending of the Gospel of Mark, assuming it ever existed and that the narrative of this Gospel did not end precisely with this “paradoxical silence,” has not been preserved. And this has prophetic significance. For those who, unlike the apostles—with the exception of John—had remained fearlessly near Jesus’ cross at the time of the crucifixion, were seized with fear and dread at the announcement of the resurrection. ““They told no one about this, for they were afraid,” says the Gospel.
It turns out that the feast of the Myrrh-bearing Women is not simply an “Orthodox Women’s Day,” as we tend to call it today, in a world where, by the will of secular emancipators, the division between male and female reigns, but the celebration of all those who fear, who are small, who are old, who bow down before God, and who keep everything pertaining to the Resurrection deep within themselves, in the depths of their souls and hearts. For it is there, according to the testimony of the Church Fathers—among whom the great Doctor of Late Antiquity, Saint Augustine, stands out—that God dwells and that He bears witness to Himself, namely, Christianity: the revelation of the one God in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit throughout the world and in the lives of the saints. Christ is risen!