“Some people continue to love, even if the person they love has departed forever”. Pope Francis used these words to describe the figure of Mary Magdalene, “she who, according to the Gospels, had been the first to see the Risen Jesus” and was the focus of today’s general audience. “The Sabbath rest had just ended”, Pope Francis told the 15,000 faithful present in St Peter’s Square today. “On the day of His Passion, there had been no time to complete the burial rite; which is why, on that day full of sadness at dawn, the women go to the tomb of Jesus with spices and ointments”. “She is the first one to arrive: Mary Magdalene, one of the disciples who had accompanied Jesus from Galilee, putting herself at the service of the early Church”, Pope Francis remarked. “In her journey to the tomb, we see the faith of many women who have shown devotion for years in the narrow pathways of graveyards, remembering someone who is no more. The most authentic bonds cannot be broken, not even by death: some people continue to love, even if the person they love has departed forever”.