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Question 

Dear Padre Angelo, 

I’m ashamed for asking this question to a Dominican priest, who is known to know a lot of things about religion and faith. But obviously you tend to ask people who know about the issue. 

I’d like to ask something about the Scriptures of these days and in particular about the ones of Easter Eve. I’ve noticed such huge differences amongst the Gospel years A, B and C about the narration of where Mary of Nazareth was and what she was doing while the pious women were going to the Sepulchre? I can’t find it. 

Waiting for your answer, I thank you. 

Have a happy Easter.

Angelo 

Answer

Dear Angelo, 

1. You can find the answer right in the fact that Our Lady wasn’t amongst the pious women who arranged the aromas and who got to the Sepulchre before everyone else. The Evangelist Luke highlights twice that Mary kept everything that happened to Jesus in Her heart.(Lk 2:19; 2:51).

This means that she also kept all of His words, including the ones foreseeing His Passion and His Resurrection.

2. Obviously Mary got back from the calvary to her house grieving as no one can even imagine.

But she was also sure that that day meant the redemption of humanity. She kept this thought in her heart like she kept God’s incarnation in her virginal womb.

3. We don’t know where Our Lady used to stay in Jerusalem. Also, we don’t know if she used to live with the women or the Apostles.

Depending on what we know about the traditions of that period, we may think that she used to live with the women. And that maybe also John used to lived there or maybe he used to live with St. Peter.

The only certain thing is that the storytelling about Jesus’ resurrection by the evangelists is so intertwined that it is difficult to understand the exact order. 

4. Another hypothesis is that people who lived with Our Lady were so respectful of her grief and her silence that they decided not to include her in preparing the aromas.

But Mary mourned Jesus’ Death more deeply than the other women, but her burden wasn’t so heavy to carry because she was sure of the Lord’s resurrection.

She kept in her heart the promise her Son made to her.

5. Mary saw that the other women were busy preparing the aromas. She understood that this burden was too heavy for them.

And exactly like when she said nothing to Joseph about the annunciation but allowed God to do everything, she did the same this time too.

6. Moreover, everyone who saw her may have wanted to leave her alone as she was so much kept by her thoughts and her grief.

If they had gone to her, what would they have told her if not just to let it go? But in doing so, they would have denied her Son’s divinity, like He wasn’t the Lord of death but just a simple prophet. And in doing so, they would have increased her grief.

7. So they left her in her weeping and silence. But their simple presence was able to comfort her.

And at the same time her presence amongst them communicated peace. Maybe it was exactly her presence that allowed them not to have any resentment resounded towards those who had condemned Jesus to death.

They all believed in the projects of God, although they weren’t able to understand them.

8. So it is easy to understand why John Paul II in his Marian catechesis of 21 May 1997 said in a concise and at the same time very eloquent way that “after Jesus’ deposition in the tomb, Mary remained alone to keep the flame of faith alive, preparing herself to welcome the joyful and surprising announcement of the resurrection. The expectation experienced on Holy Saturday constitutes one of the highest moments of the faith of the Mother of the Lord: in the darkness that envelops the universe, she entrusts herself fully to the God of life and, going back to the words of her Son, she hopes in the full realization of the divine promises”.

9. I thank you for bringing attention to these hours full of sorrow and of hope experienced by our Mother, which anticipate and illuminate the moments experienced by believers in Christ when they mourn the death of their loved ones.

I remember you to the Lord and I bless you.

Father Angelo