“At the cross her station keeping, stood that mournful mother weeping, close to Jesus to the last.”
The Stabat Mater; a moving Lenten reflection on what it meant for Mary to be standing at the foot of the cross, working through her motherly sorrow and sharing the sacrifice of Jesus offered to the Father. How good for us to reflect on Mary as part of our Lenten prayer.
In the Gospels Mary does not speak during the passion of Jesus. But it is hard to imagine that she was not aware of what was happening to her son, even before we meet her on Calvary. As we know, there had been a growing tension among the Jewish leaders in regard to Jesus. One can imagine how Mary followed the news and worried about what was going to happen. She may have spent hours in prayer, thinking back on the early hours in the manger in Bethlehem and fleeing to Egypt just ahead of the murdering soldiers. Perhaps she reflected on what a blessing it had been to laugh and play with the one-year-old Jesus as he learned to take his first steps. Maybe she recalled the support of her son at the passing of their beloved St. Joseph.
But overall, Mary was being prepared, year after year, for her participation in the suffering of Jesus. Mary, without sin. Mary the new Eve. Mary, the only one of us who could sinlessly offer her will in union with that of Jesus as he suffered for us. How often was Mary formed by the words of Jesus to be not just his earthly mother, but to be the perfect disciple. Perhaps in her prayer, Mary recalled how taken aback she was when Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does this concern of yours involve me?” as if to distance himself from a motherly request. Or perhaps she was meditating on Jesus’ words to a crowd that “whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is brother and sister and mother to me.”
The Fourth Station reflects a Christian tradition that Jesus encountered Mary on the Via Dolorosa. We can only imagine the depth of the spiritual communion that might have taken place at such a moment. Jesus, fully pouring himself out to the will of the Father and Mary, yes as mother, but even more as the sinless disciple, not fighting the will of the Father in anger, but accepting that will along with Jesus. What a consolation it would have been to Christ in his humanity to know that he was not suffering completely alone, without at least one who shared with him and understood his offering for the salvation of the world.
“Through her heart, his sorrow sharing, All his bitter anguish bearing, Now at length the sword had passed.”
At the end of the three long hours on the cross, Mary receives some of the final and loving attention of Jesus. “Woman, behold thy son. Behold thy mother.” Jesus commends Mary to St. John as a good son would care for his mother. But even more, he commends the world to Mary. Her union to the will of Christ does not end in this world but continues to her queenship of heaven. Mary’s journey into an ever deeper understanding of Christ was brought to fulfillment at the foot of the cross. The human race now has the mother that Eve failed to be.
Pray to Mary during this Lenten Season. Pray to her especially when you have sorrows and heartache as she has been the sorrowful mother who has known suffering. Lent reminds us that Easter is reached through Good Friday, that resurrection follows suffering. And Mary, our mother, is a loving example of that.