Two deaths?... What do you mean?... You do not intend to follow him, surely?... Your death, since he loves you, would only add a very useless bitterness to his....
Mary Magdalene (in the same soft and distant voice)
No.... I am not speaking of mine.... It is two other deaths.... I still have my senses.... I can see clearly in the abyss.... Let me look, where you can see nothing....
Verus
I should not have thought that, when I came to bring you his safety and the great sacrifice which I am making to love....
Mary Magdalene (with a sudden outburst)
The sacrifice which you are making to love!... Ah, if you could see the sacrifice which is being accomplished here and which the very angels dare not look upon!... But you cannot know what has happened on earth since he descended upon it!... It is no longer the same earth; and it is no longer possible!... Before he came, the purest would not have hesitated!... Before he came! Before he came!... And, even then, to-day, I, who have been born again through him, if it were not he, if it were a question of another, I should not have the strength!... I should perhaps sin against all that he loves, to save what I love!... But he gives too much strength to love and to suffer!... I could save him in spite of himself; but no longer in spite of myself!... If I bought his life at the price which you offer, all that he wished, all that he loved would be dead!... I cannot plunge the flame into the mire to save the lamp! I cannot give him the only death that could touch him!... But look at me with clearer eyes and you shall perhaps see all that I perceive without being able to tell you!... Were I to yield but for a moment under the weight of love, all that he has said, all that he has done, all that he has given would sink back into the darkness, the earth would be more deserted than if he had not been born and heaven would be closed to mankind for ever!... I should be destroying him altogether, destroying more than himself, to gain for him days which would destroy everything....
Verus
It is not so much a question of gaining days for him as of sparing him tortures, the mere thought of which should make you reflect....
Mary Magdalene