Christ Appearing to The Virgin – and to Us

Last updated on: December 2, 2014 at 7:25 pm by Billy Kangas

Christ Appearing to The Virgin – and to Us 2014-12-02T19:25:19-04:00 Billy Kangas

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One fascinating image I have been attracted to is that of Christ Appearing to The Virgin (c. 1475) by Rogier van der Weyden. It tells the story of Jesus’ appearing to his mother after the resurrection. This encounter is nowhere spoke of in the scriptures, but there is a tradition that emerged later in Christian spirituality about it. One particular account, in Pseudo-Bonaventure’s Meditations On the Life of Christ (LXXXVI), has Jesus appear after Mary has prayed asking God that Jesus would hurry up and be resurrected as he promised. In this account Jesus then appears, and after clarifying that he is indeed her son, sits and talks with his mother for a while regaling her with stories of his trip to Hell and back, as well as everything else he had done in his three days in the tomb.

I find this tradition fascinating. It is pure imagination, but deeply rooted in the scriptural account and the piety at the time. It is as if the people so associated their experience of Christ with the love of his mother that they needed an account where these two are united. The absence of a story about the reunification of Mother and Son seemed to demand that another fill in the details.

The image by van der Weyden seems to mirror the annunciation tradition. Christ takes the place of Gabriel, appearing suddenly as Mary sits reading, presumably from some Old Testament account that foretells the resurrection (although it is possible she is reading from the words of Christ foretelling his own resurrection). Following the medieval tradition of positioning Mary in one of five postures in the annunciation (Disquiet, Reflection, Inquiry, Submission, Merit). Mary sits in an orans posture, indicating a state or prayerful contemplation, indicating her continued state of merit.

The white lily, often seen in annunciation scenes, seems to have been transformed into a white shawl- symbolizing Mary’s continued purity. The Spirit has also been transformed from a dove into the wind which blows the banner Christ is holding (green being a signifier of the Spirit’s life).

This image challenges me. It reminds me that Jesus’ life isn’t locked up as a purely historic event accessible only through the scriptures. Jesus’ resurrection continues beyond the pages of the Gospels. He continues to reveal himself. Like Mary we should live in radical hope, knowing that Jesus is alive, hell has been defeated, and new life is in-breaking into the world all around us if only we see with spiritual eyes.

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