Gospel (Jn 19:25-27)

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

Commentary

We have often contemplated, either in a work of art or in our imagination, the scene in today’s Gospel: Jesus on the Cross and, standing nearby, his Mother, the holy women and the beloved disciple. There is room for us there too, who are also beloved disciples and want to be faithful to the Master in his decisive “hour.”

Jesus calls his Mother “woman,” as he also did at the wedding in Cana. Mary is the New Eve. The first Eve was also called “woman.” But deceived by the serpent, she disobeyed the divine command. Even so, God promised that the “woman” would oppose the serpent, because a descendant of hers, Jesus, would crush its head. A battle then began, which the book of Revelation describes: “Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus” (Rev 12:17). The devil wages war on Christ’s disciples, but a disciple who remains close to the Mother of Jesus will never be defeated.

Saint John Paul II pointed to Mary’s silent trial during her “night of faith.”^[1] How can we not apply to her the words of Scripture: “Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow” (cf. Lam 1:12)? On Golgotha, Mary feels the sword announced by Simeon pierce her soul. And in union with the redemption carried out by her Son, she becomes the Mother who gives birth to every Christian, to every disciple of Jesus. Today we can praise our Mother with the words the liturgy applies to her, taken from the book of Judith when the people exalted Judith for saving Israel from the power of the Babylonians: “You are the exaltation of Jerusalem, you are the great glory of Israel, you are the great pride of our nation!” (Judith 15:9). Our Mother Mary will obtain for us abundant graces to be faithful to Christ’s commandments and to escape the snares of the devil.

^[1]Saint John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater, no. 17.