THE SUFFERINGS OF MARY

"At the Cross her station keeping, stood the lonely mother weeping, close to Jesus to the last"

 In the Stations of the Cross we come upon Mary at the Fourth Station.   Jesus has been condemned to death, he receives his Cross, and weak from the pain and sufferings he has endured during the night, he falls to the ground under the weight put upon him.   Then he looks up and she is there, her eyes upon him, offering him her heart and giving him back the will to continue.   His mother knows what he must do, why he must continue, and she will be there with him every step of the way

Perhaps like other mothers in this situation she should have hid herself somewhere so that she did not see the agony inflicted on her son.   But Mary and Jesus had been preparing fort this moment all their lives.   It was foretold in scripture, it was foretold to her by the Angel Gabriel, and the voice of Simeon in the temple had warned her of this hour.   She was ready, her son needed her at this moment and she would give him all the strength he needed to carry his Cross.

Yet inside her Mary's heart was breaking.    When Jesus was whipped, when Jesus was kicked, when Jesus was spat upon, the sword that Simeon had spoken of pierced her poor heart.   But was she there just as a mother?   No, that little baby in the manger at Bethlehem she had promised to give back to the Father at the appointed time as an offering  and her offering too was acceptable to God.   She watched her son nailed  to the Cross, she heard the profanities people shouted at her son, and she begged forgiveness as her son did.  Then at last when the dead Jesus was placed in her arms, every agony she had suffered and kept silent for her son was poured out in one sad cry that pierced the Heavens.    It was for this that she was made the Mother of God.

Holy Mary, pray for us.

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