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Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament,
Hanceville, AL
7am Mass, 18 April 2009
This week during the Easter Octave, we’ve been
hearing the various accounts on the apparitions of our Lord. We’ve
heard one where He appeared to Mary Magdalene and He also appeared to
the disciples on their way to Emmaus. It was yesterday when we heard
how He appeared to the seven disciples on the seashore where He prepared
them breakfast, and also to the disciples in the upper room after the
two, who were going toward Emmaus, returned and retold the story to
them. He appeared to them and ate in front of them.
Today is Saturday, a Marian day dedicated to our
Blessed Mother. We wonder why there is no account of why our Lord did
not appear to Mary, His Mother. All the disciples fled when our Lord
was captured in the Garden. But His Mother Mary was the one who is
ever-faithful to the end. Why would Jesus not appear to His mother
after His resurrection? Now just because it’s not reported in the
Scripture, it does not mean that we can conclude it did not happen. In
a way, it would be common sense
—
it would be logical if the Lord Jesus appeared to His Mother, Mary, as
well. St. Ignatius of Loyola’s famous book, The Spiritual Exercises
has several meditations on the Resurrection and one of them deals with
what he thought that was our Lord’s very first appearance after rising
from the dead would have been an appearance to His Mother, the Blessed
Virgin Mary. Again, it’s not mentioned in the Gospel; it’s not
mentioned anywhere in St. Paul’s letter or any other letters in the New
Testament, but according to St. Ignatius he would consider it as common
sense for the event to take place. Of course, we heard the account
about how the women on the morning of Easter Sunday walked to the tomb
and how they were preparing to anoint the dead body of our Lord. From
that list, Mary’s name does not appear. The readers of that account
might wonder why she did not go with them as she had done at the
burial. Maybe it was because our Lord had already risen and appeared to
her.
One of the things that we also learned this week
during these various apparitions, including today’s, in most of them we
learn how much of a struggle and how difficult it was for the disciples
to believe in the Risen Lord. Yet the Lord had prophesied that He would
rise again from the dead, yet these disciples had difficulty in
believing it. Our Lord rebuked them for their unbelief. Our Lord
rebuked them for their hardness of heart because they had not believed
those who saw Him after He had been raised. Of course, unlike the
disciples, our Blessed Mother’s great virtue is faith. She believed
that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled. She
heard Her Son say that the Son of Man will be killed and would rise
on the third day. She heard Her Son say destroy this temple and
I will rebuild it in three days. She believed in Her Son’s word.
She pondered and meditated in her heart often Her Son’s word. And of
course, she has this great faith, the greatest faith of all our faith
put together, the greatest faith of all. Of course, she has it because
of what her Son accomplished on Calvary. All the great things that Mary
has: her Immaculate Conception, her sinlessness from the moment of her
conception all the way to death. All of that is because of what our
Lord has accomplished on Calvary.
When Jesus finally appeared, we can imagine how
lovingly she embraced Him with abundant tears of joy in her maternal
eyes in seeing her Risen Son appear again; and how our Lord must have
leaned down toward His Mother, whom He loves very dearly, in order to
plant a kiss upon the face of His mother. From that moment when He
appeared to her in the splendor of His Glorified Body, her heart must
have been filled with such a great fullness of joy that it has never
again abandoned it. That’s why we call her Mother of our Joy, the Cause
of our Joy. We often remind her: Queen of Heaven rejoice for He has
risen from the dead.
John Paul II gave several Marian catechesis.
Specifically April 3, 1996, this particular General Audience he titled
it that Mary was a witness to the Paschal Mystery and he touched that
very point that I am mentioning this morning about the legitimacy of our
Lord’s appearance to His Holy Mother. John Paul II mentions how the
silence in the Gospel, the silence in the New Testament must not lead to
the conclusion that after the Resurrection Christ did not appear to Mary
this day. Rather, it invites us to seek the reasons why the evangelist
made such a choice. The silence could be attributed to the fact that
what is necessary for our saving knowledge was entrusted to the word of
those chosen by God as witnesses; that is, the apostles who gave their
testimony of the Lord Jesus’ resurrection with great power. He also
added that if the Gospel writers or if any of the New Testament writers
include such an appearance of our Lord to His Mother it would have been
considered too biased by those who denied the Lord’s resurrection, and
therefore it’s not worthy of belief. Going back to what I said earlier,
just because it’s not recorded it does not mean that it did not happen.
St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians mentioned how the Lord
appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time. This was not included
in any of the Gospels. So our Lord must have appeared to our Blessed
Mother after His resurrection. One of the things that John Paul II said
was that she was present at Calvary on Good Friday and she was present
in the upper room on Pentecost. The Blessed Virgin, too, he said was
probably a privileged witness of Christ’s resurrection, completing in
this way her participation in all the essential moments of the Paschal
Mystery. One of those essential moments obviously is the resurrection
of Her Son. The more we learn about our Lord, the more we learn about
Mary, and vice versa.
Of course, we have been spending these days
preparing for the Feast of the Divine Mercy. Our Lord is the source of
Mercy; He is Divine Mercy itself. Mary is the Mother of Mercy. St.
Faustina related how the Blessed Mother was a constant source of God’s
mercy for her as a mother, guardian, teacher, and intercessor. From
Mary she received a special gift of purity. From her, she received the
strength and suffering. From her, she received countless lessons on the
spiritual life. St. Faustina writes “Mary is my instructress who is
ever teaching me how to live for God. The more I imitate the Mother of
God, the more deeply I get to know God. Before every Holy Communion, I
earnestly ask the Mother of God to help me prepare my soul for the
coming of Her Son.” St. Faustina said, “She has taught me to love God
interiorly and also how to carry out His will in all things.”
Mary, our Mother, we place everything in your
hands. You are joy, because through you God descended to earth and into
our hearts. Amen.
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