Today we admire the women who followed Jesus for who He was, out of gratitude for the good they had received from Him ("they had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities"). They did not follow him in the hope of making a career for themselves later. This is one of the surest signs of the honesty and historical credibility of the Gospels: the insignificant role played in them by the authors and inspirers of the Gospels, and the wonderful role they show played by the women.

Their presence alongside the Crucified and the Risen One contains a vital lesson for us today. Our civilization, dominated by technology, needs a heart for man to survive within it without becoming totally dehumanized. We must give more space to the reasons of the heart if we are to prevent our planet from spiritually collapsing into an ice age.

It's not difficult to understand why we are so eager to increase our knowledge and so reluctant to increase our capacity to love: knowledge automatically translates into power, love into service: "Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up" (1 Cor 8:1).

In fact, no woman was involved, even indirectly, in the condemnation of Jesus Christ. Even the only pagan woman mentioned in the narratives, Pilate's wife, dissociated herself from his condemnation (cf. Mt 27:19). It is true that Jesus also died for the sins of the women, but historically only they can truly say: We are “innocent of this man's blood" (Mt 27:24).

We have always wondered why these pious women were the first to see the Risen One and why they were entrusted with the mission of announcing him to the apostles. The true answer is this: the women were the first to see the Risen One because they had been the last to abandon him when He died, and even after his death, they went to his tomb to bring spices. (cf. Mk 16:1).

With them was Saint Mary: mothers do not abandon a child, even one condemned to death.

(From the sermon on Good Friday 2007, in St. Peter's Basilica)