19 April 2019
Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion
Being a Christian means taking up our cross daily and following Jesus. It means following him on the way of the cross toward Calvary. It can be a frightful road full of insult, injury, and even death. It’s no surprise that so many of his followers abandoned him. But, there was a small group that stayed close to him to the very end: his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Along with these holy women was the disciple whom Jesus loved.
In the last moments of Christ’s life, he gives us one of the most beautiful gifts we could ever expect, his mother. To Mary, he says, “Woman, behold, your son.” To John, he says, “Behold, your mother.”
John, the beloved disciple, was most certainly sad and afraid. Jesus knew this, and he graciously gave his mother to John…but not before giving John to Mary. She was a mother to him before he was a son to her. A mother’s love is something that exists long before we are born. It’s something we can feel before we have any understanding of what it actually is. Mary is our mother, and she loves us long before we even realize it. She comforts us in a way that only a mother can during our time on Calvary.