"Of His Kingdom there shall be no end." It was to Mary that these words were said, before her Son was born; and she believed them. She knew, therefore, that He would rise again; she knew that all was not finished when she left the precious Body in Joseph's new tomb. In all probability, too, JESUS had told her, as He told the Apostles, that He would rise again on the third day. And while they "believed not nor understood," _she_ did both. But this supernatural gift of faith, which she exercised to the full, had not the power to prevent the sword from piercing on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. She felt the full weight of all her sorrow, but she sorrowed, as all Christian mourners should do, "not without hope." What must her expectation have been as she knelt on that Holy Saturday night counting the minutes till the day dawned! She knew that He would rise again--but would she see Him? Would He come to her? He had kept her so much in the background during His ministry, perhaps He will do so still, and it will be to those who need Him most that He will come. No, sweet Mother, the meek and lowly of heart ever attract Him; it is to the heart which _desires_ Him most that He will come. A pure, disinterested desire to have JESUS ever proves to Him an invincible attraction. No one on earth desired to see JESUS as Mary did, and it was to her, as the traditions of the Holy Fathers testify, that He came first--as soon as the Easter Day dawned and "death could no longer be holden of Him." The Evangelists are silent about this appearance of JESUS to His Blessed Mother, for the very good reason that she told them nothing about it. There was no need to do so, as, for example, there was to tell various little details about His Birth, because GOD wished us to know them. At this meeting of the Son and the Mother even Angels would fear to intrude; and we ordinary mortals simply should not understand what took place, even were it narrated to us. All those to whom He appeared would take it for granted that His Mother had seen Him--why write down a thing that everybody knew? "According to thy faith be it unto thee." Mary was the _only_ one who had faith enough to believe that her Son would rise again, and it was only natural that she should be the first to see Him. She was the one who had entered most deeply into His sorrows, and she would be the one to whom He would first communicate the Easter joy. Let us now think a little about Mary's joy. _Point II._--MARY'S JOY AND ITS CAUSES