Mary, "the first person to whom the risen Jesus appeared"

The Easter season gives us many accounts of the apparitions of the risen Jesus to the first Christians, but one person seems to be forgotten, overlooked, or rather discreet in her silence: the Virgin Mary. She is mentioned as being at the foot of the Cross; she will be part of the first group of people gathered in the Cenacle. But where is she at Easter?

In his Spiritual Exercises, when he comes to the mystery of the Resurrection, St. Ignatius of Loyola recommends that we meditate on the fact that Jesus "appeared to the Virgin Mary: even if the Scriptures do not explicitly say it, this is evident from the fact that he appeared to many others."

p>Around the same time, St. Teresa of Avila received a private revelation: "Jesus told me that, having risen from the dead, he went to see our Lady, because she was in great need of him: the pain she was experiencing was consuming and piercing her, and she was not yet able to re-enter her inner self to experience this joy [of faith]; and that he had spent a long time with her, because she needed to be comforted."

St. John Paul II offered a similar argument: "It is not conceivable that the Virgin, who was among the first community of disciples, was excluded from the number of those who met her Son who had risen from the dead. On the contrary, it is likely that the first person to whom the risen Jesus appeared was his mother. Her absence from the group of women who went to the tomb at dawn may be an indication that she had already met Jesus. The unique and special character of the Blessed Virgin's presence at Calvary and her perfect union with the Son in his suffering on the Cross seem to postulate a very particular sharing on her part in the mystery of the Resurrection."

No doubt this encounter between Mary and Jesus was too intimate to be reported directly to us.

Excerpts adapted from: Lectio Divina