We read in the Gospel that Jesus, after His Resurrection, appeared many times to His disciples: To Simon Peter, to the disciples of Emmaus, to Magdalen in the garden of the sepulchre, to the apostles assembled in the upper room and on the shores of the lake of Tiberias. Can we suppose, even for an instant, that He deprived His Most Holy Mother of these apparitions? The supposition would be injurious to the most amiable Heart of Jesus, to the most loved and most loving of sons.
The humility of the Holy Virgin concealed the touching and glorious mysteries of love which rejoiced Her heart after the sad and sorrowful days of the Passion; but our faith can easily penetrate the veil by which the Mother and the Son hid from all human eyes their sacred and intimate communications.
Mary had taken the greatest part in the sufferings of the Saviour; She ought also to have the greatest part in the joys of His Resurrection. She was first at the martyrdom; She ought to be first in the triumph. This is in order. Besides the divine promises, which constantly brought suffering and consolation nearer to each other, nature itself tells us what our Blessed Saviour would do for His Most Holy Mother.
The first desire of a dutiful and well-born son is to make his mother participate in the joy of a great victory. I cannot imagine that the Conqueror of hell and death would trample under-foot this law of nature. Even in the absence of the testimony of the Gospel I cling to the belief of those holy souls who, in meditating upon the mystery of the Resurrection, have always seen the Blessed Virgin enjoy before all others the presence of her risen Son.
At the moment in which the stone was rolled away from His tomb Jesus was with His Mother. With sweet and familiar voice He addresses Her: O my Mother! And Mary, crushed with grief, rising as if it were from the slumber of death, cries out: O my Son! What tender outpourings! What blessed caresses! What heavenly conversations! To the tortures of separation succeed the delights of reunion.
Let us assist at the interviews of Jesus and Mary. Let us felicitate our Mother upon Her great happiness, and address Her in the Canticle of the Church: "Queen of Heaven, rejoice, for He whom Thou didst bear in Thy womb is risen, as He said. Pray to Him for us. Eternal glory be to God! "Rejoice, O Mother! rejoice in the fullness of Thy heart in presence of Thy Well-Beloved! Thou wert mindful of us in the death of Thy Son; Thou wilt not forget us in His Resurrection. Pray to Him for us:
For us, who are children of a Church that would long since have been crushed under the persecution which the powers of darkness had let loose upon her, if the divine Founder had not promised her immortality:
For us, sorrowful children of a country (France) humiliated, torn with divisions, held by divine justice on the brink of an abyss which may any day become her everlasting tomb:
For us, cold Christians, whose dying life drags itself with difficulty along the rough pathway of the commandments:
For us and for those who, by blood and love, are ours; for sinners whom we love and who are too long buried in the deadly sleep of iniquity.
Offer to God our prayers for our relatives and friends whose bodies are covered by the earth around us, and whose suffering souls await but the call of Heaven to fly to His bosom who is the resurrection and the life.
O Queen! O Virgin! O Mother! pray for us, and pour down upon our prayers and upon our souls, upon the souls of those dear to us, upon our country, upon the Church, and upon the whole world the breathings of the Resurrection . To every creature who is chained down by grief, by sin, by death, give power today to sing a joyous Alleluia.