IN CALVARY - THE THIRD WORD
2. "Behold Thy Son."
It was then that Jesus, looking at His Mother, uttered the words referring to John; and in John to all of us. Enter into the heart of the Holy Virgin and see the shudder of pain that goes through Her on hearing these words. Poor Mother! How much She suffers! Those words are a goodbye. Jesus is about to go. That is why those words are a supreme goodbye to His Mother.
Jesus, Her life, Her all, is about to go. She is going to lose Him. Not just as when He was a boy and She found Him again in the temple. This time She will never more see Him in this world. From now on She will be a bereaved Mother. A Mother without Her child!
But Jesus gives Her a new son. Behold, from now, Thy son! But this, far from consoling Her, is bound to torture Her more. A mother wants for child only her own. She will not exchange him for anything and for anybody and especially when there is such a difference between the one and the other. John, it is true, was a faithful and devoted disciple, nevertheless after all he was but a mere disciple. Her Son was the Master. While John was the son of Zebedee, Her Son was the Son of God. John was not Her Jesus.
Also She sees that along with John and with as much right as he, so many other children are given to Her among whom are the disciples, so cowardly and selfish, those who at the moment of test flee and desert the Master; and together with them, all of us. What an inheritance! What a heavy burden. What a humiliating maternity. Just compare your heart with that of Jesus and try to understand Mary's sorrow at this substitution.
However, She does not refuse. In order to become the Mother of God Her consent had been requested. But Jesus does not ask Her whether She wants to be our Mother or not. He knows Her heart and that suffices. He does not hesitate to load on it the burden of being the Mother of sinners. Contemplate the humility of Mary when with immense sorrow She repeats at the foot of the cross the words She once had uttered with ineffable joy: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to Thy word. And in this manner She accepted what the Lord sent Her. If we were always to leave God's hands free to do with us whatever He pleases, if we always accepted whatever His loving Will sends us, what great strides would we not make on the road to sanctity!
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
2. "Behold Thy Son."
It was then that Jesus, looking at His Mother, uttered the words referring to John; and in John to all of us. Enter into the heart of the Holy Virgin and see the shudder of pain that goes through Her on hearing these words. Poor Mother! How much She suffers! Those words are a goodbye. Jesus is about to go. That is why those words are a supreme goodbye to His Mother.
Jesus, Her life, Her all, is about to go. She is going to lose Him. Not just as when He was a boy and She found Him again in the temple. This time She will never more see Him in this world. From now on She will be a bereaved Mother. A Mother without Her child!
But Jesus gives Her a new son. Behold, from now, Thy son! But this, far from consoling Her, is bound to torture Her more. A mother wants for child only her own. She will not exchange him for anything and for anybody and especially when there is such a difference between the one and the other. John, it is true, was a faithful and devoted disciple, nevertheless after all he was but a mere disciple. Her Son was the Master. While John was the son of Zebedee, Her Son was the Son of God. John was not Her Jesus.
Also She sees that along with John and with as much right as he, so many other children are given to Her among whom are the disciples, so cowardly and selfish, those who at the moment of test flee and desert the Master; and together with them, all of us. What an inheritance! What a heavy burden. What a humiliating maternity. Just compare your heart with that of Jesus and try to understand Mary's sorrow at this substitution.
However, She does not refuse. In order to become the Mother of God Her consent had been requested. But Jesus does not ask Her whether She wants to be our Mother or not. He knows Her heart and that suffices. He does not hesitate to load on it the burden of being the Mother of sinners. Contemplate the humility of Mary when with immense sorrow She repeats at the foot of the cross the words She once had uttered with ineffable joy: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to Thy word. And in this manner She accepted what the Lord sent Her. If we were always to leave God's hands free to do with us whatever He pleases, if we always accepted whatever His loving Will sends us, what great strides would we not make on the road to sanctity!
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
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