“Behold your mother” (Jn 19,27)
Mary looks on us and loves us as though we were her son, her own children, who bear this glorious quality for two reasons. First, because as mother of the Head she is therefore mother of the members (cf. Col 2,19). Second, because our Savior on the cross gave us to his mother as her children. He gave us to her, not simply in her capacity as queen and sovereign, but in that capacity that is of the greatest imaginable advantageousness for us, namely as mother, saying to each one of us what he said to his beloved disciple: “Behold your mother”. And he gave us to her, not simply as servants or slaves – which would have been a great honor for us – but as children.
“Behold your son”, he said to her, referring to each one of us in the person of Saint John, as though he were saying to her: “Behold all my members, who I give to you as your children; I am putting them in my place so that you can consider them as myself and love them with the same love with which you love me; as I love them, love them too”. Mother of Jesus, you look on us and love us as your children and as brothers of Jesus, your son, and with the same heart. And you love, and will love us eternally, with the same motherly love with which you love him.
And so, my brethren, in all your business, your needs, your anxieties and afflictions, have recourse to the heart of our so charitable mother. It is a heart that is always watching over us and over the slightest of things that concern us. It is a heart so full of kindness, sweetness, mercy and liberality that none of those who invoke it with humility and trust ever returns without being consoled.
| Saturday, June 08, 2013 The Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Memorial) |
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