Seeing Beyond the Tomb

When she arrived at the tomb
to embalm him, with tears on her face,
He had risen for her sake,
and could tell her at last to stop.

Only later did she understand
that his death had steeled her
and forbade the sentimental urge to sob continually
and to cling.

Now he made her one who was loving,
not just to him, pulled and drawn by distant hope,
but having been shaken by an earthquake of understanding,
she came into her own.



“After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning,
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.” Matthew 28:1


[ A free translation of ‘Der Auferstandene”- by Rainer Maria Rilke, 1913]