Jesus embraced her lovingly. "Dear mother, thou wilt suffer with me, thou wilt fight with me in my death struggle, but thou wilt also rejoice with me in my victory, therefore be comforted."
"Oh, God!" she cried in heartrending accents, "give me strength that my heart may not break."
"We all weep with thee, thou best of mothers," said the holy women, adding their tears to those of the mother of Jesus.
"I will go with thee, my son, to Jerusalem," said Mary.
And the holy women declared they also would go with her.
But Jesus, holding her hand, tenderly forbade her: "Later you may go thither, but not now. For the present stay with our friends at Bethany. I commend to you, O faithful souls, my beloved mother, with those who have followed her here."
Eagerly the Magdalene accepted the charge.
"After thee," she exclaimed, "there is no one dearer to us than thy mother."
But even at the eleventh hour Lazarus interposed one last word of entreaty: "If only thou, O master, couldst remain!"
Not noticing this, Jesus said, "Comfort ye one another. After two days you may come up together to Jerusalem, to be there on the great day of the feast."