Jesus Meets His Mother Mary
(Those of us who have had the privilege and honor of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land always make Jerusalem part of the holy time. There, although the Jewish Temple has been replaced by a grand mosque, we can see the very places we read about in the New Testament, the actions of our redemption through the life, passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many make the way of the cross, the Via Dolorosa, an ancient prayer service with stops at places that commemorate events of Our Lord’s tortuous journey to the place of His execution. Some of the stations, as they are called, are taken directly from the Gospels, some are inferred from the practice of crucifixion, and a few come from the more reliable Christian traditions.)
The scriptures are sensitive to the special bond between mother and child, forged early in the first nine months of life when the mother feels the baby moving around inside her, and she speaks or sings to him and feels--not imagines--the infantile responses. The love of God for His people is even more intense than that love between mother and child at the breast. And those of us in loving families know that this love can and should grow even when the children leave home. So Christian tradition tells us that His Mother, Mary, was present during the Passion and at the death of Christ.
One of the most memorable scenes in the film The Passion of the Christ showed Jesus falling under the weight of the cross, and His mother recalling a memory from His childhood. The toddler Jesus was running, tripped and fell to the ground, and His mother came to His aid, picked Him up and comforted Him. On the via dolorosa, she runs to Him, they exchange words and loving glances, and He goes on His way, obeying His Father’s will as she had taught Him to do all during His life.
The vignette is not written in any of the four Gospels, but we can have confidence that Mary and John followed Jesus and the crowd of onlookers all the way to the cross. Surely the crowd of Passover pilgrims from Galilee had a vested interest in the prophet who had taught them, healed them, forgiven their sins and given them hope beyond their life of servitude. So Mary's companions were almost certainly among them, watching, wailing, and praying to God that He would be released, or call down legions of avenging angels, or anything rather than die with all their dreams.
But it would not be so. Jesus willingly trudges forward, driven by His total commitment to do the Father’s will. He suffered, not reluctantly but looking forward to the fulfillment of the promise made to David ages before, and recorded in psalm 110: “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” Jesus was and is the King of the Jews, but not only of the people of Judea. He is the King and Lord of all, and Mary would be with Him as the Queen Mother.
What does this poignant moment mean to us followers of Christ in our day? Mothers lose their children every day to disease, violence, starvation, or natural catastrophes. They cry out to God the question that has no answer in this life, “Why? Why? Why my child?” When we encounter mothers, and fathers also, who have experienced that loss and feel that incomparably awful grief, that’s not the time to share some half-baked theological opinion. God does allow bad things to happen to good people. In that moment, we who follow Jesus need only to stay with the grief-stricken, to feel that pain and do what we can to help. In those times our listening ears are more useful than our mouths.
Jesus went through excruciating suffering, and His Mother was right there with Him. Let’s pray that we can imitate them both when our time comes to suffer, or to suffer with.
