Did Jesus Appear to His Mom after He Rose from the Dead? The Gospels never mention it.

Easter was two days ago, and on that glorious morning we heard from the Gospel of John.

“Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciples He loved and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb and we do not know where they have put Him.” (John 20:1-9)

The gospel read at the Easter Vigil is from Mark 16: 1-7. In this gospel, Mary Magdalene and Salome have gone to the tomb to anoint Him. This is when the angel appears to them, and tells them He has risen and to go and tell His  disciples.

The following week, on the Second Sunday of Easter ( Divine Mercy Sunday), the gospel is once again from John, this time John 20:19-31. This is when, with the doors locked, Jesus appears to all of them (except “doubting”  Thomas). Interestingly,  someone is never mentioned in any of these gospel readings. That someone is Jesus’s mom, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

So where was she when Jesus rose from the dead? She was His mother. She was nearby throughout the Passion and watched Him carry His cross. She watched as they drove the nails through His hands and his feet. She stood agonizingly and helplessly by as He was raised on the cross. For three hours she stood there watching every drop of blood leave her boy’s body. She was at the foot of the cross when He died.

No mom should ever have to witness such cruelty heaped upon her own child. Who could have loved him more than she? Doesn’t it seem absolutely unquestionable that the first person who Jesus appeared to after He rose was His Mother? Yet there is not a single mention of the Blessed Virgin in the Resurrection narratives.

In 1931, Pope Pius XI, rooted in findings from the Council of Ephesus in 431, instituted the Feast of the Divine Maternity. Although somewhat obscured by the dogmatic teaching of Mary’s Perpetual Virginity, it is tied tightly to it. The Divine Maternity explains to us that the greatness and majesty that was bestowed on Our Lady was wrapped into a bundle of pure Love from God. For He was the Father of her child. She was the mom. Every drop of Jesus’s DNA comes from His mom. The Father and Son are God. Jesus Christ is truly Human and Divine, separate yet one.

From the Catechism 496: Mary’s Virginity:

From the first formulations of her faith, the Church has confessed that Jesus was conceived solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, affirming also the corporeal aspect of this event: Jesus was conceived “by the Holy Spirit without human seed.” The Fathers see in the virginal conception the sign that it truly was the Son of God who came in a humanity like our own …

Back to the Resurrection. As a simple man of faith, I have to believe that Jesus immediately went to see His mom upon leaving the tomb where he was, moments earlier, dead. I shall end this with the following:

VATICAN CITY, MAY 21, 1997 (VIS) –The Holy Father focused the catechesis of today’s general audience in St. Peter’s Square. Pope John Paul II said, “The unique and special nature of the presence of the Virgin at Calvary,” added the Pope, “and her perfect union with the Son in his suffering on the Cross, seem to postulate a very particular participation on her part in the mystery of the Resurrection.” 

The Blessed Virgin, who was present at Calvary and at the Cenacle, “was probably also a privileged witness to the Resurrection of Christ, in this way completing her participation in all the essential moments of the paschal mystery. Embracing the risen Jesus, Mary is, in addition, a sign and anticipation of humanity, which hopes to reach its fulfillment in the resurrection of the dead.”

If St. John Paul II says it must be so, that is good enough for me.

Copyright 2018 Larry Peterson