Saturday April 22
Did you know that this is the passage substituted for Mark’s “lost ending”? It was quoted by St Irenaeus in about the year 180, which shows that it was already in place by that date. It is a summary of other accounts of the Resurrection. There is also an alternative ending, given in one early manuscript: “They reported briefly to Peter’s companions what they had been told. Then Jesus himself, through their agency, broadcast from east to west the sacred and incorruptible message of eternal salvation.” Some manuscripts have both endings. In a different sense we can talk about another “lost ending”: the Gospel: story is always incomplete; the life and times of every disciple of Jesus is another ending, and is followed by another and another. My Christian life is to be an account of the Resurrection—or perhaps quite often I leave him in the tomb!
