Devotion for today: behold your son

Although His agony and pain were intense, Jesus took care to entrust us to His mother.

Scripture for reflection:  John 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 there whom he loved 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 into his home.

Scripture for reflection: Genesis 3:20

The man called his wife Eve, because she became the mother of all the living.

Blessed John Paul II tells us:  After recalling the presence of Mary and the other women at the Lord's cross, St. John relates: "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!’". These particularly moving words are a "revelation scene": they reveal the deep sentiments of the dying Christ and contain a great wealth of meaning for Christian faith and spirituality. At the end of his earthly life, as he addressed his Mother and the disciple he loved, the crucified Messiah establishes a new relationship of love between Mary and Christians. Interpreted at times as no more than an expression of Jesus' filial piety towards his Mother whom he entrusts for the future to his beloved disciple, these words go far beyond the contingent need to solve a family problem. In fact, attentive consideration of the text, confirmed by the interpretation of many Fathers and by common ecclesial opinion, presents us, in Jesus' twofold entrustment, with one of the most important events for understanding the Virgin's role in the economy of salvation. The words of the dying Jesus actually show that his first intention was not to entrust his Mother to John, but to entrust the disciple to Mary and to give her a new maternal role…. Although Jesus' death causes Mary deep sorrow, it does not in itself change her normal way of life: in fact, in departing from Nazareth to start his public life, Jesus had already left his Mother alone. Moreover, the presence at the Cross of her relative, Mary of Clopas, allows us to suppose that the Blessed Virgin was on good terms with her family and relatives, by whom she could have been welcomed after her Son's death. Instead, Jesus' words acquire their most authentic meaning in the context of his saving mission. Spoken at the moment of the redemptive sacrifice, they draw their loftiest value precisely from this sublime circumstance. In fact, after Jesus' statements to his Mother, the Evangelist adds a significant clause: "Jesus, knowing that all was now finished...." (Jn 19:28), as if he wished to stress that he had brought his sacrifice to completion by entrusting his Mother to John, and in him to all men, whose Mother she becomes in the work of salvation. The reality brought about by Jesus' words, that is, Mary's new motherhood in relation to the disciple, is a further sign of the great love that led Jesus to offer his life for all people. On Calvary this love is shown in the gift of a mother, his mother, who thus becomes our mother too….  The universal motherhood of Mary, the "Woman" of the wedding at Cana and of Calvary, recalls Eve, "mother of all living" (Gn 3:20). However, while the latter helped to bring sin into the world, the new Eve, Mary, co-operates in the saving event of Redemption. Thus in the Blessed Virgin the figure of "woman" is rehabilitated and her motherhood takes up the task of spreading the new life in Christ among men…. Mary becomes the Mother of all disciples. Jesus' words, "Behold, your son", effect what they express, making Mary the mother of John and of all the disciples destined to receive the gift of divine grace. On the Cross Jesus did not proclaim Mary's universal motherhood formally, but established a concrete maternal relationship between her and the beloved disciple. In the Lord's choice we can see his concern that this motherhood should not be interpreted in a vague way, but should point to Mary's intense, personal relationship with individual Christians. May each one of us, precisely through the concrete reality of Mary's universal motherhood, fully acknowledge her as our own Mother, and trustingly commend ourselves to her maternal love. (L'Osservatore Romano, April 1997)

Prayer: O Glorious Virgin
O glorious Virgin, ever blest, all daughters of mankind above, who gave nurture from your breast to God, with pure maternal love.
What man has lost in hapless Eve, the blossom sprung from you restores; you to the sorrowing here beneath, have opened heaven’s eternal doors.
O gate, through which has passed the King; O hail, when light shone through the gloom! The ransomed nations praise and sing, the Offspring of your virgin womb.
All honor, laud and glory be, O Jesu, virgin-born to thee; all glory as is ever meet, to Father and to Paraclete. Amen

 My thoughts: The prodigal son is a well-known figure in the New Testament. He stands for all of us when we stray from God the Father. Today we see The Good Son, St. John. I think he stands for all of us when we do the will of God. Here we find him at the foot of the Cross, the only apostle who did not run and hide when adversity presented itself. Tradition has it that he stayed with Mary throughout the entire series of events leading up to the crucifixion. He is the youngest of the apostles, “the one whom Jesus loved”, and the bravest. Jesus loved Him because his heart was pure, his spirit strong and his faith unwavering. May that be said for all of us! Blessed Fulton Sheen said that when he died, and stood before Jesus, he wanted Jesus to say to him, “I know all about you. My mother has spoken well of you to me.” By entrusting ourselves to our heavenly mother, praying to her to intercede for us to her Son, and following the example of St. John, maybe we will hear those words when we enter the heavenly kingdom!

Our prayer to God: Lent is almost over. Next week we enter into the Triduum, then journey on to Easter. This would be a good time to stop and reflect on the role Mary played in the passion, thank her for it, and ask her to be with us as we travel our own roads of pain. She understands what we are going through as only a mother can, and she will help us if we but ask.