Today is Monday in the Easter Octave. Easter is so big, there is so much to tell, it gets eight days of overflow in which to tell it.
Here is the early 16th century painting of the Risen Christ announcing the Resurrection to his Mother. It is a tiny image, smaller than a usual piece of paper, painted by Juan de Flandes as part of a many scene-d composition for Isabella, a Spanish Queen. Originally made up of forty-seven scenes of Jesus' life, twenty- seven have survived.
There is no biblical account of Jesus addressing his mother after the Resurrection. Someone at some other time had the inventive, spiritual insight to imagine that even before the myrrh-bearers came to the tomb, Jesus had already gone to share with his Mother the news of his rising. That heart-story was handed on in some places within Europe from the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. And why not?
Notice how much the depiction echoes paintings of the Annunciation—Jesus is standing where Gabriel would usually stand and Mary is surprised while at her prayer. Angels are fascinated onlookers. Heaven is opened and the Spirit is present, symbolized in the upper left corner.
The idea is understandable on an emotional Mother-Child level but has even greater significance if we remember that Mary is the first disciple (the first to say yes to Jesus). And so the painting might well be imaging Christ come to reveal and address himself to each of us. We're in the long line of disciples of which Mary is in the lead. We're as eager as she, to look up, to see him and to know him in the newness of Easter—his having gone through death to a newness of life—now, today! Don't just be a religious admire-r, but ask, what might this mean for me personally?
And here is a Paschal Hymn to the Theotokos (Mother of God) sung in Eastern Christian churches. The hymn begins with an Angel (or is it Christ himself?) making the Easter announcement to Mary.
The Angel cried to the Lady full of grace:
Rejoice, O Pure Virgin! I say:
Rejoice! Your Son is risen from His three days in the tomb!
With Himself He has raised all the dead!
Rejoice, all ye people!
Shine! Shine! Shine, O New Jerusalem!
The glory of the Lord has shone on you!
Dance now and be glad, O Zion!
Be radiant, O Pure Theotokos, in the Resurrection of Your Son!
