Mary Magdalene: A Monologue
by Connie Schroeder



The birds are still silent

The morning star

  Shines on the horizon

Blinking at me as I slip out the door

And down the well worn path.

The silence just before dawn

Envelopes me

And it reminds me of the emptiness

The deep emptiness in my soul

The emptiness in our now shrunken band of followers

 Followers of whom?

    Jesus, who is gone

 It feels as though the world has gone silent



Here I am,

  Alone, walking

I hear the sound of my feet

  The quiet earth beneath me

My tears are finally flowing

At first I was so numb

It just didn't seem real

None of us could believe

that he was dead

 His poor beaten body

      laid in a stranger's tomb.

And then I prayed that it wasn't so

Begged God to let him be alive

And then the fury

Oh the fury I felt

a frenzy of fury that left no speck of dirt

 in the house

    as I flew about

  helplessly dusting and sweeping

      scrubbing

all night long.

until finally, this morning

  I began to cry

      I began to understand

        My head began to clear

All I want is to be near him

   I know there is a stone

       Between his body and my tears

     But Jesus has a way

         Of melting stones

             He changed my heart



The sun has come up

Somehow it's hard to understand

  Why it continues to shine

        when hope has left us...



Here it is, the tomb is just around the bend

  Why is my heart beating

      My skin pulsing with life

  When his body lies lifeless.



Oh my God!  Oh my God.

He's gone.the stone is pulled back

  That dark chasm of death

       Staring at me

  Oh my God!

I am running, my feet pounding on the earth



  My fists pounding on the door

     "Peter, John..oh .Come quickly,

           The stone, the tomb, Jesus.oh my God."

We run,

we run,

  my heart is in my throat

  John, the one Jesus loved so deeply

     Outruns both Peter and I.

We find him standing outside the tomb

  He had looked in, but stayed outside

      I think he couldn't bear to go in

         And find more destruction

Bt Peter, always impetuous, even now

  Bursts in, and finds the tomb empty

     He comes out with such a puzzled, pained look on his face

And tells us:

     No one is there.  No one.  Nothing.

         Just the grave clothes they wrapped him in.



That pushes John into the tomb,

now they've run away.



And here am I,  weeping.

Oh God, Where have they taken him?

What have they done?



I hear a noise.that's so odd,

The tomb was empty."Who's there?"

Their clothing is so white...blinding

even through my tears

They ask me why I am weeping.

"Why am I weeping?  They have taken my Lord away,

I don't know where he is.  Do you know?"



And now the gardener is here too

asking me why I weep.

"Please, if you've taken him, tell me where he is."



That's when I hear his voice, speaking my name.

"Mary."

 And I see him

    Through my tears



He is here, he is right before.

  It is really Jesus

"Rabbouni, my teacher, "



and he speaks with me,

  tells me not to cling to him,

       tells me to go and tell the others."



"Yes Lord.  I will go."  And suddenly he is gone

but a sweet fragrance fills the air

I turn and find the garden full with color

flowers everywhere.

And I smile, for he was always bringing me a flower

when he could find them

he would tell me that it was to remind

me of who I am...

he would tell me

that I was God's daughter

loved and known

and I would keep those flowers

until they began to wilt

I still have them

pressed between some flat stones.



Oh they've gone blurry,

I'm weeping again..



"I must go.  He's alive.  Jesus is alive.  I must go and tell them..."



(Comments to Connie at cocreations@gmail.com

Permission to use with acknowledgement

Oneonta, New York