"...And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is our faith." (1 Cor. 14-15)
This quotation from St Paul makes clear that our whole faith rests on Jesus rising from the dead. People came to believe this in different ways. The beloved disciple saw the empty tomb and drew his own conclusion. Others came to realise what had happened when Jesus appeared to them. There is one person who did not come to the tomb, and that was his mother. She didn’t need to. Mary was the person of faith, who from her earliest years had focussed on God, accepted his call to be mother of his son, had reared him with love and stood steadfastly by the cross when he died. Though she must have been overwhelmed with grief, there would have been the belief buried within her that he would rise from the dead as he said he would. Luke tells us that Mary pondered on the events in her Son’s life (Luke 2:19 and Luke 2:51), and - like any other mother - must constantly have wondered what was going to happen. At the marriage-feast of Cana, she showed that she trusted enough to put matters entirely into his hands (John 2:5).
There is a long tradition that the Risen Lord appeared first to her. St Ambrose spoke of it in the Fourth century AD; the scene was depicted by Juan de Flandes (15th century); and in the pre-Reformation stained glass of the wool church in Fairford, in the Cotswolds. St Ignatius reflects on the appearance in the First Contemplation of the fourth week of the Spiritual Exercises. He would have probably visited the chapel of Our Lady in Jerusalem, where the scene was also depicted. In Spain the the event is celebrated in many places, where Jesus and his mother meet in the centre of the town.
What an inspiration Mary must have been for the early church with her unwavering faith in her son! We pray for ourselves as Easter people, in a world that can be very dark, that we who have not seen may still continue to believe as Mary did.