When Mary had finished the mournful task of preparing the Sacred Body of her Son for burial, the disciples carry Him to the sepulchre in the garden of Joseph of Arimathea. All her hopes, all her joys, all her affections were buried with Jesus. He was her one and only treasure, and where her treasure was laid, there was her heart also.

Mary amid all her anguish had experienced a strange and melancholy pleasure in embracing the dead Body of her Son and performing for it the last offices of love. She knew, too, that though the human Soul was parted from it, the Divinity was still there. She could adore with the highest worship that mangled form, those limbs livid and cold. But now she was separated even from that Sacred Body. How empty, how bland, was all around without Jesus!

Yet Mary, in spite of her desolation, was never dejected, never gloomy. She was full of joy and peace. In the anguish of her separation from Jesus, she was more than comforted by the knowledge that all His sufferings were past, and that He had already begun to see the fruit of His travail. Those who love God more than themselves have always a fount of consolation in every sorrow.

When our Lord ascended into Heaven, we are told that the Apostles went back to Jerusalem with great joy (St. Luke xxxiv. 52). But there was none of them so joyful as Mary. Her sacred heart overflowed with happiness and delight. The greatest possible joy for her was thus to witness the triumph of her Son and to hear the angels welcoming the King of glory to His throne in Heaven.

Yet Mary's life must have been one long desire after Heaven, more so than ever after Jesus had ascended. Still she had no wish even for the Heavenly Paradise so long as it was God's will that she should remain on earth. She was quite content to wait. Am I resigned and patient when the will of God contradicts my inclinations and desires?

Why was Mary left on earth? To comfort and sustain, to instruct and advise the first disciples of Christ. None knew like her the secrets of His Sacred Heart, none had such an instinctive perception of what He would desire in the many doubts and difficulties that arose, none could impart such sweet consolation to the afflicted. How often the disciples in her beheld their Mother! In Heaven she is still our comforter, adviser, guide.

On the third day after Mary's death, when the Apostles gathered around her tomb, they found it empty. The sacred body had been carried up to the celestial Paradise. Jesus Himself came to conduct her thither; the whole court of Heaven came to welcome with songs of triumph the Mother of the Divine Word. What a chorus of exultation! Hark how they cry, "Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates, and the Queen of Glory shall enter in."

Why was Mary's body received into Heaven instead of remaining in the earth, like the rest of mankind? The grave had no power over one who was immaculate. Her flesh could not see corruption. Her body had been overshadowed by the Holy Ghost; it had been the sacred temple in which had dwelt God incarnate, and so it had a claim to ascend whither the Body of her Son had already gone before.

But the chief reason was that, as she had shared in each detail in the sorrows and agony of her Son, so it was right that she should take part in His triumph. To her it was due that she should without delay enter into the joy of her Lord, her Son, her God. O happy Mary! what were all her dolors compared with the joy of that first moment of Heaven! How light are all our sorrows compared with tlie eternal weight of glory prepared for us!