Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" (John 20:15)

Sometimes we forget. We focus so much on the joy and celebration of this day, on the bright flowers and festive music, that sometimes we forget; the first sound heard on that first Easter Sunday was the sound of weeping.

It was Mary Magdalene's weeping. Tears of hopelessness poured out of her in loud wailing and moaning; her body convulsed in grief and her sobbing pierced the quiet of the early morning stillness. We often overlook the fact that this was the sound which greeted the first Easter's dawn in Jerusalem.

She had gone to the garden tomb early in the day, as the sun was rising, in order to finish dressing the body of Jesus. The coming of the Sabbath at sundown on Friday had prevented her from doing a proper job with J…