Holy WeekMary, the mother of Jesus
(6. 3.91.)
“Now there stood by the Cross of Jesus, His Mother”.
Mary stood by the Cross. There was no emotional scene. Women of the East normally expressed their feelings very readily, and it might have been expected that a mother present at the crucifixion of her son would have thrown herself about, or sunk down on the ground and covered her head, lamenting loudly.
We are inspired by her courage, strength, dignity and calmness, and there is a sense in which Mary was prepared for this occasion, agonising though it was. Mary’s life had been full of strange happenings, of deep and costly emotional and spiritual experiences. She had known great joy and sharp pain, inner turmoil and much suffering. Mary’s had been a life of obedience and devotion to duty, of self-sacrifice and of inward strength and discipline. We read many times in the Gospels that “Mary stored all these things in her heart and pondered upon them”. Hers was a life of silent devotion and prayer.
We should bear in mind that Crosses were not very tall. Mary’s head would probably have been in line with her son’s waist. The soldier by the Cross, putting the sponge soaked in wine on the end of a quite small spear was able to reach our Lord’s lips.
Mother and Son. She had a very special relationship to our Lord. She had always been very close to him. By being near him at this time, perhaps Mary felt she could impart to him some of her own spiritual strength and prayer, and surely, scenes of her early life with Jesus must have passed through her mind during those silent, agonising hours.
We too can look back briefly over the life of Jesus and Mary and remember:. The words of the Angel at the Annunciation and Mary’s response, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord” She was just a young girl in her maidenhood, probably about the age of seventeen, perhaps even younger. This was a response of faith, love, trust and obedience. Then there was the desperate search for a secluded place for her confinement and for the birth of her baby She and Joseph could only find a stable with the smell of hay and of animals. Then there was the homage of the simple shepherds, and the coming of the wise Kings and their timely warning. And so they made their flight by night into Egypt.
Then there was ‘The Presentation in the Temple’. They would remember the words of Simeon as he held the baby Jesus in his arms, and the blessing of the young parents and a warning of future pain and suffering.
The occasion of their visit to the Temple in Jerusalem when Jesus was twelve, and on the return home not knowing where he was and finding him among the Teachers in the Temple and not understanding, gently rebuking him. And Jesus’ reply, “Why have you been looking for me? Did you not know that I should be in my Father’s house? And afterwards, he was obedient to them.
Later, in adult life, the first miracle at the Wedding in Cana, when Mary was instrumental in perceiving an opportunity and acting upon it and Jesus’ uncertainty that the time was ripe and his gracious response on his mother’s behalf.
When he first left home and embarked on his public ministry, it must have been a difficult time for Mary. Not only a loosening of the close ties which bound them but also missing his physical presence and support. After his father Joseph died, Jesus looked after the carpentry shop, as legend has it.
Mother and Son. There would have been a deep understanding between them. A union of their souls in anguish, love and trust. Probably Mary was comforted by remembering verses from the Scriptures, as did Jesus, and she would have been with him in prayer.
We remember the words spoken from the Cross. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” A prayer for the soldiers acting under authority, however distasteful the task.
The words to the penitent thief, crucified beside him, “Truly, I say to you; today you will be with me in Paradise”. This was surely an assurance of his being forgiven and that he would not forget him, and that he would greet him on the other side of death.
And the words he spoke to his mother thinking of her need - the words so special to the heart of Mary. , “Woman, behold your son, and to the disciple whom he loved, “Behold your mother”.
The direct meaning of our Lord’s brief sentences was that he entrusted his mother to his best-loved disciple as a sacred charge. It was with the group of the Apostles that Mary was to remain.
In the great doctrine of ‘the mystical body of Christ’, in which we, too, are incorporated, Mary exists in a special way. She is the mother of Christ, therefore she is the mother of the whole of Christ in whom we are incorporate. Our Lord’s words on the Cross to her and the disciples are the meaning of the Incarnation and the Church which was to follow. Mary is the Mother of the Church. Jesus came on earth to reveal what God is like. In human form Jesus was born of a human mother. In Mary, the mother of our Lord we have the supreme example of motherhood.
It is fair to say that it is the Roman Catholics who have the greater understanding and deeper reverence for the role of Mary in the Church. This surely should be an enrichment of our daily worship and we should benefit from their devotions and prayers concerning the mother of Christ. And, of course she has a very important place in the Communion of Saints and is especially remembered on some of our greater Festivals and Holy days.
Fatherhood and motherhood of God are both relevant images in our ways of worship and reflect various aspects of the nature of God. The Church is like a mother who has brought us to new birth , nourished and fed us. Anyone who has a ministry in bringing people to their second birth has a share in this motherhood. In this, too, many Pastors, men or women will discover the maternal side of their ministry.
And one last image, so beautifully and movingly portrayed in painting and sculpture, the Pieta, is God’s mother holding her dead son in her arms. The Pieta is a symbol of the self-imposed powerlessness of God in the hands of men. Christ’s body is taken down from the Cross by soldiers, held in Mary’s arms, wrapped by Joseph of Arimathea in the linen cloth and taken off to burial.
We can reflect, too, on God’s powerlessness when he came into this world as a tiny baby and was held in Mary’s loving arms as she nourished him with her own body. There is a Carol we sing which says it all – “Enough for him, whom cherubim worship day and night, a breast full of milk and a manger full of hay”. Also, in the Eucharist God makes himself a ‘passive’ thing to be held and broken by the fingers of the Priest. And to every human being God gives a similar power over himself, the power to reject or to receive him.
The Pieta is the symbol of God’s love for the world. It was to make love possible that he gave mankind free will and the power to choose good or evil. God made us to know him, to serve him, to love him and to’ live in joy with him’. This is the Resurrection life.
A Prayer: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death”.