Insightful comment

Here is a very insightful comment from Rorate Caeli's Carlos Antonio Palad about my post about the Cebuano priest who changed the Salubong rituals in his parish by taking out the image of the Virgin Mary and exchanging it with Mary Magdalene. And the image covered with a black cloth and needed unveiling was that of the Resurrected Christ and not Mary Magdalene. Hmm...so much for the mourning veil, eh?

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That the Resurrected Christ appeared FIRST to the Blessed Virgin Mary is strongly affirmed by St. Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises (in the brief section entitled "OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST OUR LORD OF HIS FIRST APPARITION").

In 1997, Pope John Paul II explicitly declared that it is permissible to believe that the Risen Christ appeared first to His Mother, and that there are strong grounds for believing that He indeed first appeared to her:

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/1997/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_21051997_en.html

"3. Indeed, it is legitimate to think that the Mother was probably the first person to whom the risen Jesus appeared. Could not Mary’s absence from the group of women who went to the tomb at dawn (cf. Mk 16:1; Mt 28:1) indicate that she had already met Jesus? This inference would also be confirmed by the fact that the first witnesses of the Resurrection, by Jesus’ will, were the women who had remained faithful at the foot of the Cross and therefore were more steadfast in faith.

Indeed, the Risen One entrusts to one of them, Mary Magdalene, the message to be passed on to the Apostles (cf. Jn 20:17-18). Perhaps this fact too allows us to think that Jesus showed himself first to his Mother, who had been the most faithful and had kept her faith intact when put to the test.

Lastly, the unique and special character of the Blessed Virgin’s presence at Calvary and her perfect union with the Son in his suffering on the Cross seem to postulate a very particular sharing on her part in the mystery of the Resurrection.

A fifth-century author, Sedulius, maintains that in the splendour of his risen life Christ first showed himself to his mother. In fact, she, who at the Annunciation was the way he entered the world, was called to spread the marvellous news of the Resurrection in order to become the herald of his glorious coming. Thus bathed in the glory of the Risen One, she anticipates the Church’s splendour cf. Sedulius, Paschale carmen, 5, 357-364, CSEL 10, 140f)."

There were also Doctors of the Church who affirmed this tradition:

http://www.cuf.org/Laywitness/Online_view.asp?lwID=1231

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My response:

Unfortunately, Carlos, priests like Fr. Lao read more of what Hans Kung and his ilk write than those of the writings of St. Ignatius, the Church Fathers and even the Pope.

They are Church!

Ugh!

By the way, do you know any priest who actually read documents from the Vatican even after their theology?

........eeeeeeeewwww.....Neow.....

To few....