Chapter 72 Mary Magdalene: Thirty Years Later

I will say it again: Jesus conquered death with death and rose from the grave in spirit and power.He walks alone in our solitude, he is a guest in the garden of our passions. He is not lying in a rock hewn behind a stone. We who adore him have seen him with eyes enlightened by him and touched him with hands taught by him. I understand those of you who do not believe in him, I was one of you in the past, but your numbers will surely decrease. Must you break a harp or a lyre to discover the music in it? Do you have to cut down a fruit tree to believe it bears fruit? You hate Jesus because some in the northern kingdom say he is the Son of God; but you hate each other because each of you thinks you are great and you don't want to be another's brother.

You hate him also because some say he was born of a virgin, not a seed sown by a man. But you don't know the mothers who go to the grave virgins, or the men who go down to the grave choked by their own desires. You do not know that the earth was married to the sun, but it is the earth that delivered us to the mountains and deserts. Between those who love others and those who hate others, between believers and unbelievers, there is a gulf wide open. And when the years have bridged the gap, you will know: He who dwelt among us is immortal; that he is truly the Son of God, as we are the Son of God; Born of the earth without a husband.

Strange to say, the earth has not given unbelievers the roots to suck her breast, nor the wings by which to soar high and drink the nectar of her air. And I know it all, and that's enough.