10 APRIL – WEDNESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK AFTER EASTER

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

We are not to suppose that because the sacred humanity of our Risen Jesus is resplendent with glory and majesty, it is therefore less accessible to mortals. His kindness and condescension are the same as before; nay, He seems to have become more affectionate than ever, and more desirous to be with the children of men. Surely we have not forgotten what happened during the joyous Octave of the Pasch! His affectionate greeting of the holy women when on their way to the sepulchre. His appearing to Magdalene under the form of a gardener. His conversation with the two disciples of Emmaus, and the means He took to make them recognise Him. His showing Himself on the Sunday evening to the ten, greeting them with His Peace be to you, allowing them to touch Him, and even condescending to eat with them. His amiably bidding Thomas, on the eighth day, to convince himself of the reality of the Resurrection by feeling the wounds. His meeting His disciples at the Lake of Genesareth, blessing their fishing, and providing them with a repast on the bank — all this is proof of the tender love and intimacy with which our Saviour treated His creatures during the forty days after His Resurrection.

As to His visits to His Blessed Mother, we will have another occasion for speaking of them. Today we will consider Him in the midst of His disciples. So frequently is He with them that Saint Luke calls it an appearing to them for forty days (Acts i. 3). The Apostolic College is reduced to eleven, for the place of the traitor Judas is not to be filled up till after our Lord’s Ascension, immediately before the descent of the Holy Ghost. How beautiful in their simplicity are these future messengers of the good tidings to mankind! (Isaias lii. 7) A short while ago they were weak and hesitating in their faith. They forgot all they had seen and heard. They fled from their Master in the hour of trial. As He had foretold it to them, they were scandalised at His humiliations and death. The news of His Resurrection made little impression on them. They even disbelieved it. And yet, they found Him so affectionate, so gentle in his reproaches, that they soon resumed the confidence and intimacy they had had with Him during His mortal life. Peter, who had been the most unfaithful, as well as the most presumptuous, of all, has now regained his position of the most honoured of the Apostles, and, in a few days hence, is to receive a special proof of Jesus’ having forgotten his past disloyalty. He and his fellow-Apostles can think of nothing now but of Jesus. When He is with them, they feast on the beauty and glory of His appearance. His words are dearer to them than ever, for they understand them better now that they have been enlightened by the mysteries of the Passion and Resurrection. They eagerly listen to all that He says, and He says more than formerly, because he is so soon to leave them. They know that the day will soon come when they will no longer be able to hear His voice. They, therefore, treasure up His words as though they were His last will, and how could they better fit themselves for the mission He has entrusted to them? It is true, they do not, as yet, fully enter into all the mysteries they are to preach to the world — they could not even remember so many sublime things — but Jesus tells them that he will soon send upon them the Holy Ghost, who will not only give them courage, but will also bless them with spiritual understanding, and will enable them to remember all that He, Jesus, has taught them (John xiv. 26).

Nor must we forget the holy women, those faithful companions of Jesus who followed Him up to Calvary, and were the first to be rewarded with the joys of the Resurrection. Their Divine Master could not overlook them now: He praises their devotedness, He encourages them, He takes every opportunity of repaying them. Heretofore, as the Gospel tells us, (Matthew xxvii. 55) they provided Him with food. Now that He needs no earthly nourishment, He feasts them with His dear presence: they see Him, they hear His words. The very thought that he is soon to be taken from them makes these happy days doubly precious to them. They are the venerable mothers of the Christian people. They are our illustrious ancestors in the faith, and on the day of the Descent of the Holy Ghost, we will find them with the Apostles in the Cenacle, receiving the Tongues of Fire. Woman is to be represented on that glorious occasion when the Church is to be made manifest before the world. The Women of Calvary and the Sepulchre are chosen for this office, and right well do they deserve to share in the bright joys of Pentecost.