Fourth Station: Jesus Meets His Mother

"Fourth Station: Jesus Meets His Mother"
by Gishlaine Howard for Liverpool Cathedral

The Mother. Mary meets her Son along the way of the Cross. His Cross becomes her Cross, his humiliation is her humiliation, the public scorn is on her shoulders. This is the way things are. So it must seem to the people around her, and this is how her own heart reacts: "And a sword will pierce through your soul also" (Luke 2:35). The words spoken when Jesus was forty days old are now fulfilled. They are now completely fulfilled. And so, pierced by that invisible sword, Mary sets out towards her Son's Calvary, her own Calvary. Christian devotion represents her with this sword penetrating her heart, in paintings and sculpture. Mother of sorrows!

"You who shared his suffering!", say the faithful, who know in their hearts that the mystery of this suffering can be expressed in no other way. Although this pain is hers, striking deep in her maternal heart, the full truth of this suffering can be expressed only in terms of a shared suffering -- 'com-passion'. That word is part of the mystery; it expresses in some way her unity with the suffering of her Son.

 

~Pope John Paul II, Good Friday, 2003

 

Behold the handmaid of the Lord.

Be it to me according to thy word.

~Luke 1:38