Newsletter - May 2006
?REGINA COELI, LAETARE, ALLELUIA!? ?QUEEN OF HEAVEN, REJOICE, ALLELUIA!?
How many times did Jesus appear after his resurrection? To whom did he appear?
You may say that these are good questions! Indeed, it is difficult to answer. If we carefully read the gospels, we may conclude that Jesus appeared about eleven times. He first appeared to the women, in particular to Mary of Magdala, early morning on the first day of the week. In the evening of the same day, we know that he was seen by two disciples going to Emmaus. Several times he appeared to the Apostles. According to St. Paul, Jesus appeared "to more than five hundred of the brothers, at the same time" (1 Cor 15: 6). He had breakfast with seven of his apostles on the shore of the Lake of Galilee. The last time he was seen by the disciples was the day he ascended into heaven, forty days after his resurrection.
It is very strange, though, that there is no record of Jesus appearing to his Mother. We know that, during his mission, he was accompanied not only by the Twelve, but also by some women (cf. Lk 8: 1-3). We presume that also his mother was with them. Certainly she was in Jerusalem when Jesus suffered his passion and when he died (cf. Jn 19: 235-27). She was not afraid to stay under the cross to witness his death. And the Christian piety has handed down the tradition that Mary received Jesus' body in her bosom, when they took him down from the cross. She was his mother in his birth; she was his mother in his death. Then, it is only natural and beautiful to think that Jesus, risen from the dead, visited his mother, in the silence of dawn, while the sun started to beam from the horizon.
That is why the Church, at Easter time, sings to Mary:
"Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia;
because he, to whom you gave birth, alleluia,
is risen, alleluia; pray for us to God, alleluia"
The pilgrim who visits the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and goes to the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, can see, on the left hand side of the altar, a beautiful bronze representing the encounter of Jesus with his Mother.
There are some words there, written in Latin:
"Virginis oculi pleni facti sunt Filii visu;
et ipsa vultum eius intuita est divinum".
That is:
"The eyes of the Virgin were filled with the vision of her Son;
and she gazed at his divine face"
THE NEW WINE
Since death could not devour him without a body, and the world of the dead could not swallow him up without flesh, he came to the Virgin, so that he might receive from her a chariot on which to ride to the underworld. In the body he had assumed he entered death's domain, broke open its strong-room and scattered the treasure.
And so he came to Eve, the mother of all the living. She is the vineyard whose hedge death opened by Eve's own hands so that she might taste death's fruit. Thus Eve, the mother of all living, became the source of death for all the living.
But Mary blossomed, the new wine compared to the old wine, Eve. Christ, the new life, lived in her, so that when death, brazen as ever, approached her in search of his prey, life, the bane of death was hidden within her mortal fruit. And so when death, suspecting nothing, swallowed him up, death set life free, and with life a multitude of men.
This glorious son of the carpenter, who sets up his cross above the all-consuming world of the dead, led the human race into the abode of life. Because through the tree the human race had fallen into the regions below, he crossed over on the tree of the cross into the abode of life. The bitter shoot had been grafted on to the tree, and now the sweet shoot was grafted on to it, so that we might recognise the one whom no creature can resist.
(St. Ephrem the Syrian)
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