Mother of Sorrows

"Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother,

and his mother's sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen."

~John 19:25

She was there precisely because she was His Mother, the Mother of the Man of Sorrows, the Mother whom the will of God and the word of God have linked with Him for time and for eternity.  The first worshippers at His crib "found the Child with Mary His Mother."  At His first miracle, not only "the Mother of Jesus was there," but the marvel was wrought before His time, at her desire and intervention.  Therefore it was fitting she should take her place beside Him -- the mother's place -- at death.  That all ages might know that in the offering of the great Sacrifice by which the world was redeemed He would not be without her -- "there stood by the Cross of Jesus His Mother."

She was there to refute the error that suffering should be the portion of the wicked only.  In the Old Law the victims required by God had to be faultless.   The Lamb of God who was to take away the sins of the world was the All-holy.  And love exacts likeness.  His Mother must be not only full of grace but full of sorrow.  The portion He chose for Himself He shares with His friends, and in measure proportioned to their nearness and dearness to Him.

The will of God was Mary's stay beneath the Cross.  She stood erect, for this was her support.  Above all the promptings of nature that tore her mother's heart was the steadfast desire to see that will fulfilled in every tittle.  She would not spare Him one pang.  She bore up under every insult offered Him, renewing continually the offering they had made together at His Presentation in the Temple, in the quiet days at Nazareth, the stormy years of the Public Life, and on the Way of the Cross.   To both the will of God was all in all -- "Life in His Will." (Psalm 29:6)

It is He Himself who from His Cross directs our eyes to her as to our Model:  "Behold thy Mother."  "Look and do according to the pattern shewn thee on the Mount." (Exodus 25:40)

~Mother Mary Loyola, With the Church, Volume 1: Advent to the Ascension

Dear Mary, Mother of Sorrows, may I always rejoice to stand with you at the foot of the Cross.  Amen.