"No human imagination can soar to the joy with which she was inundated at the moment when He came fresh from the grave to make Himself visibly and sensibly present to her in her quiet chamber, where she had watched through the night in contemplation of what had passed and was passing with Him. It required, as we may surely say, all the wonderful strength and calm of that Blessed Mother to be able to meet the moment of their reunion. Before such wonderful outpourings of Divine love, we can only adore in silence. The joy of our Blessed Lady was, as the Scripture speaks, according to the multitude of the sorrows by which her Heart had been overwhelmed, and when the one can be measured, then also may the other be understood.
She saw before her the saints and heroes, the prophets and kings, those who in their own history had foretold Him and herself in type or prophecy—her own dearest parents, her own beloved spouse, and the Blessed John.
The foundation of each saintly character is in its resemblance to our Lord, and the beauties are ever varied. And in thinking of the happiness which each one will enjoy in each other, it must be remembered that we speak of souls endowed with most marvellous faculties, both of intelligence and of enjoyment, so that all will be able to see, in the sharers of their felicity, more than can be imagined here, where all our faculties of intelligence and happiness are dulled and stunted and dwarfed by the fetters of the corruptible body.
This new state of happiness now began for the saints who entered on the Beatific Vision, at the time of which we are speaking, and has gone on increasing in intensity and largeness as the company of the blessed increases in number and beauty, as time passes on. But when we speak of the meeting and reunion between our Lord and His Blessed Mother, we touch upon joys and glories by the side of which the very brightest and deepest of heavenly transports seem to fade to nothing."
