Mary in the Easter Season

The Gospels don't say much about Mary during the Passion and Resurrection. She appears only briefly, at the foot of the Cross in John's account, and then not explicitly at the empty tomb. And yet, the Church has always understood that her presence during these days was profound, even if the Scriptures don't linger on it.

She was there. That's what matters. And what she experienced (the sorrow, the waiting, the joy) offers us something we need.

Standing at the Cross

John's Gospel tells us that Mary stood near the cross of Jesus (John 19:25). The verb is important. She didn't collapse. She didn't flee, as most of the apostles did. She stood.

Simeon had told her, decades earlier, that a sword would pierce her heart. Now it was happening. She watched her son, the one the angel had announced, the one she had carried and nursed and raised, die slowly, publicly, in agony.

And she stayed.

This is not passive suffering. This is the hardest kind of faithfulness: remaining present when you can do nothing to fix what is happening, when all you can offer is your presence. Mary models for us what it means to stand with those who suffer, and to stand before God when his ways are beyond our understanding.

Given to Us

In the midst of his suffering, Jesus looked at Mary and then at John. "Woman, behold your son," he said to her. And to John: "Behold your mother" (John 19:26-27).

This is more than a dying son making arrangements for his mother's care. The Church has always understood this moment as Jesus giving Mary to all his disciples. John stands in for each of us. In that moment, Mary becomes the Mother of the Church.

This is why we turn to her. Not because she replaces Christ, but because Christ himself gave her to us. She is a gift from the Cross.

The First to See Him?

The Gospels record that Mary Magdalene was the first to encounter the Risen Lord at the tomb (Mark 16:9). But a tradition stretching back to the medieval period suggests that Jesus appeared to his Mother even earlier, privately, before the women arrived at the garden.

This tradition, once proposed, was embraced by a striking number of saints: Anselm, Albert the Great, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Ávila. In his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius includes "the appearance to the Virgin Mary" as the first of Christ's resurrection appearances. The tradition is not found explicitly in Scripture, but it has been held with deep conviction by the faithful for centuries.

St. John Paul II addressed this directly in 1997: "From this silence, one must not deduce that Christ, after his Resurrection, did not appear to Mary. On the contrary, it is legitimate to think that the Mother may really have been the first person to whom the risen Jesus appeared."

Why isn't it recorded in the Gospels? Perhaps because this visit was not meant as proof of the Resurrection, that role belonged to the Magdalene and the apostles. Perhaps this moment between Mother and Son was too intimate, too sacred to record. We don't know.

But the question lingers: Would he not come first to the one who had believed longest, suffered most, and never wavered?

Regina Caeli

Throughout the Easter season, the Church replaces the Angelus with a different prayer: the Regina Caeli, "Queen of Heaven, rejoice!"

Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia. For he whom you did merit to bear, alleluia, Has risen as he said, alleluia. Pray for us to God, alleluia.

This prayer captures the turn from Good Friday to Easter. The one she bore has risen. The sorrow that pierced her heart has given way to joy beyond telling. And now she intercedes for us, her children, asking God to bring us into that same joy.

If you've never prayed the Regina Caeli, the Easter season is the time to learn it. It takes less than a minute, and it places you in the company of Mary's Easter joy.

May: Mary's Month

By God's providence, the month of May, traditionally dedicated to Mary, falls during the Easter season. This is fitting. We honor her not in a season of sorrow but in the season of Resurrection.

The May devotions, crowning statues of Mary with flowers, praying the Rosary, gathering for processions, are ways of celebrating with her. She who stood at the Cross now reigns with her Son. And she has not forgotten us. She remains our Mother, interceding for us, drawing us closer to him.

A Model and a Mother

Mary's role during Easter is not decorative. She shows us how to stand when we cannot understand. She receives us as her children. She rejoices with us, and for us, when Christ conquers death.

This Easter season, ask for her intercession. Pray the Regina Caeli in place of the Angelus. Spend time with her in the Rosary, especially the Glorious Mysteries. Let her lead you deeper into the joy of the Resurrection.

She who knew him best wants you to know him too.