Chapter 66: Of the joyful and loving appearance of Christ to His Mother when she had withdrawn to her secret chamber

I BLESS You, and give thanks to You, O Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son of God, Incarnate and Born for our Salvation of Mary the Virgin, for Your glorious and most true Resurrection, made as on this day, and chiefly for that most joyful and secret appearance which You did vouchsafe to make to Your holy Mother Mary, as she was praying in the secret chamber of her house, and with intense longing and firm faith was looking for Your coming. To her first of all, before appearing to any of Your holy friends, or to any of the holy women who ministered to You and were so beloved by You, did You graciously appear. You did reverently greet her; You did most sweetly console and comfort her, and You did abundantly rejoice her heart by Your bodily presence clad in the shining and glorious robe of Your immortality. From what we know of Your tender love it is right and just that we should think that this was so, and that we should believe it for the honour of Your most Holy Mother; for You are loving and full of mercy in all Your works, and You did command us to honour our parents, and to comfort mourners. This then is to be piously believed by all the faithful, that before any one else You did first of all visit Your most holy Mother, who was sorrowing deeply at Your Passion; and by Your presence did dispel all her grief and sorrow, and did fill her heart with joy.

And although she did not go with the other devout women to visit Your Sepulchre, it was not from want of love, nor from fear, nor from excessive grief that she failed in this duty; but it was because she knew for certain that You would rise again. She stayed at home in the sure hope that on the third day You would come to her; and so, engaged meanwhile in holy prayers, she longingly awaited Your coming. She deserved therefore to be the first to see You, Whom she loved and longed for more than all the world besides, in Whom she believed with a faith which knew no doubt at all. For if, because she believed the Angel Gabriel's message, when he announced to her the sacred mystery of the Incarnation, Mary was called blessed, and was so highly commended, how supremely blessed and to be commended was she for believing in You, her Son, Flesh of her flesh, in all Your works; and for wavering not one whit, but standing firm when others were doubting.

How unspeakable was the joy with which holy Mary, Your Mother, was filled in that hour when she saw You, her Son, adorned with dazzling splendour, and in a Body more glorious than the brightness of the sun, and exceeding in beauty all the stars of Heaven. How intensely and how heartily did her spirit rejoice in You, O Jesus, her Lord and her Salvation, on that day above every other day of her life in this world. How eagerly did she gaze at Your glorious Body, that Body which a short while ago she had wept at seeing cruelly scourged and nailed to the Cross, which she had seen pierced in Its right side by Longinus' lance, and had afterwards laid in the Sepulchre as a Corpse. Deservedly, then, is Mary, whose heart at Your Passion was rent with a keener grief than those of others, whose tears had been more copious than those of others, and whose grief had moved many others to weep with her — deservedly then is Mary to-day made happy above her wont by seeing You in glory; deservedly is she filled with new comfort. This, O Lord, was the moment when You did bring to pass that word of Yours, which at the Supper You did speak for the comfort of Your Apostles (and did assuredly make known to Your afflicted Mother), saying: "I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you, and will see you again; and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you."

You have indeed done well, O most kind Jesus, in visiting as a Son Your dearly loved Mother, in greeting her reverently, in speaking to her sweetly, in comforting her heartily, in showing to her the joy of Your countenance, in driving away from her all sadness, and in wiping away all tears of sorrow from her eyes. For no sooner had she seen You than all sorrow and sighing fled away, and when You spoke to her heart, the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, abode more intimately with her than even with the Apostles, making, so to say, her soul drunk with joy. You Who formerly, at her request, did at the Marriage Feast turn water into the best wine, now on Your return from Hell, and by Your victory over Your enemies, did with yet greater power, and by a greater miracle, change death into life, the cross into glory, Your Mother's tears into gladness, and Your disciples' fear into everlasting joy.

You did not send an Angel, nor even an Archangel; not Michael, nor Gabriel, nor Raphael, Your glorious messengers; nor any noble earthly knights, gorgeous to behold, clad in gold and silver and in precious stones, to wait upon our dear Lady, Your Mother, the Queen of Heaven; but, You, King of Glory, Jesus Christ, You came Yourself in person, early in the morning before the break of day, unseen of men, without a messenger to announce You, to visit Your most blessed Mother, as she knelt instant in prayer, and awaited full of faith Your return in Your glorious Body from the Tomb. For she knew that all things must be fulfilled even as You had Yourself foretold, and as the holy prophets had long ago spoken of Your Passion and Your Resurrection. Of a truth this is the day which You have made a Day of Gladness; a day rightly and deservedly to be esteemed more holy, more illustrious, more celebrated and more joyful than all other days in the year.

With all Your holy ones in Heaven, and with all Your devout and faithful ones upon earth, I praise and honour You for the sweet converse and the secret conference, which You had with Your holy and dearly loved Mother Mary in her chamber, into which no noise of the world could come; where You did discuss with her Divine mysteries concerning the Kingdom of God, the joys of Paradise, the choirs of Angels, and the holy souls redeemed from Hell and given a share in the joys of Paradise along with Enoch and Elias.

Oh that I had been there, and had heard Your sweet words; that I had secretly stood near the window, and had listened attentively, unseen by the eye of man, to every word which fell from the lips of my Lord Jesus Christ as He talked with His Mother about the joys of the citizens of heaven. With what intense gladness would my heart have rejoiced in the Lord, could I, for my comfort in my earthly pilgrimage, so full of dangers as it is, have remembered even one or two words of that sacred converse! But perchance what passed was what man may not utter, which ought to be kept secret, which ought to be meditated on in the joyous music of the heart alone. Blessed is he who knows that music, who by meditation rises above all earthly things, who is busy all day with Jesus and Mary, and neither cares, nor thinks, about what is going on in the world.

It seems to me that no mortal man was worthy of being present at this converse, but only the holy Angels, and the souls of the just who follow their Lord with reverence and with joy whithersoever He goes. Perchance too that conference was so exalted and so heavenly, and that visit to the Mother's humble dwelling was so surpassingly sweet, that neither were the Apostles allowed at that time to enter it, nor could they have taken in the wondrous mysteries which Jesus, glorified of the Father, then discussed with His Mother, blessed Mary full of grace. Rather therefore, O Lord Jesus, would I leave all those things to You and to Your holy Angels, humbly asking forgiveness of all my sins and shortcomings from You, Who make known to babes Your hidden treasures, and feed starvelings with the bread of Heaven. O most gracious Lord Jesus Christ, Who after Your bitter Passion and joyful Resurrection did appear calm and joyous, in all the brightness of Your glorified Body, to Your most holy Mother Mary, and in place of her trouble and distress did fill her heart with new and unspeakable gladness, have mercy, I pray You, upon me, Your poor weak suppliant, who am so often sorely troubled in my earthly pilgrimage.

Lo, I fall low before You this day; full of affection I keep on knocking at the door of Your loving Mother, and I pray that in the time of my affliction You would vouchsafe to come into the secret place of my heart, to console and comfort me, and to preserve me, on the one hand from undue sadness, and on the other from unbecoming joyousness.

Kindle in my heart, I beseech You, and keep alive in it renewed fervour and greater devotion and thankfulness to You, that so I may learn to turn my back upon all the vanities of this world, to seek the things which are above, to choose like Mary the things which are eternal, to meditate on the things of God, and to rejoice in You alone. Oh that to me, poor and of no account as I am, it might be given to ponder these things more earnestly than ever before, and to tarry longer with Jesus my Lord; that so the whole world and those who love it may become distasteful to me, and I may be able to shut them out of my sight.

O most sweet Jesus, may You, together with Your most sweet Mother Mary, and Your holy Angels, be more pleasing and delightful to me than all else besides; kindle, I pray You, in my inmost heart the fire of Your love; come oftener to visit me, and bless me more and more abundantly; keep me devoted to You; and when the trials and troubles of this life are over, bring me safely to that heavenly Kingdom, where You live and reign, etc.