sweet perfume. The apostles closed the sepulchre, knowing that the Lord had endowed the most pure and holy body of Mary with immortality, before the day of the general resurrection, and had sent His angels to carry it up to heaven.”
COMMENTARY.
The Persecution of the Church. When our Blessed Lord first sent forth His apostles and disciples to preach, He said to them: “Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Beware of men, for they will hate you and persecute you for My name’s sake. The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.” That which our Lord foretold was completely verified in the case of the apostles, for they were all persecuted and martyred; and even now it is still being realised in the Church, for her faithful children and servants are continually hated, calumniated and persecuted by the world on account of their steadfast confession of their holy faith. This very fact that the Catholic Church and her bishops and priests are reviled and persecuted by the world, is a proof that she is the true Church of the persecuted Saviour; for she does but share the fate of her Divine Master. What Jesus prophesied of His own is fulfilled in her: “If the world hate you, know that it hath hated Me before it hated you. Because
