When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved,
he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.”
Then he said to the disciple,
“Behold, your mother.”
Jesus loved and honored his mother to the maximal extent possible, from beginning, when she was created in abundant grace and free from sin, to the dark hour of his cross, and beyond. He also loved his disciples to the end, giving all that he had, up to and including his own life, for their sakes. In this particular moment where we read of him speaking to John the beloved disciple and to his mother Mary we see the coming together of these two great streams of his love. There was no one who loved Jesus better than his mother, no other love so unselfish and totally given over to Jesus than was hers. And yet Jesus desired to share this love, first with the beloved disciple, and then with all beloved disciples in turn.
Jesus did not tell John merely to take care of Mary in his absence but rather to take her to be his own mother. Mary, in turn, was to share the love she had as the mother of Jesus with John and all the beloved disciples who would follow after him. She did not love them in precisely the same way as Jesus because only Jesus was the God man. But she loved them all unto her Son, knowing him as the greatest of all possible goods, the best of the good things she could will for anyone.
Jesus addressed his mother as "Woman" because in this hour she became the New Eve, mother of all the living. We know from Genesis that Adam's wife Eve was intended to be the "mother of all the living". And in some sense she was that. But in another sense the fall had made it the case that none were truly and fully spiritually alive in the way God intended. It was to restore this gift of life that caused the true thirst of Jesus on the cross, a thirst he would only satisfy by pouring out his own life for the world.
but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,
and immediately Blood and water flowed out.
Once Jesus had unleashed the flood of new life upon the world it became the preoccupation of his mother to help the world to drink it. She had prefigured this role of hers in the wedding feast at Cana where she interceded with her Son to give wine to those in attendance and instructed those charged with serving to "Do whatever he tells you" (see John 2:25). We can see that she was again playing this role at Pentecost as the Apostles gathered around her and sought the gift of the Spirit by prayer in one accord. Mary was a stabilizing and unifying element, the hub of the wheel that joined them together. She was acting as New Eve, and in a particular way as Mother of the Church, the title under which we celebrate her today.
All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer,
together with some women,
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
We, like John, are called to take Mary into our homes and into our hearts. As she did for him and the first disciples she is meant to play a special role in our own lives, drawing us ever closer to her Son as the source of the living water for which we thirst. We must truly become, as we are meant to be, "her offspring, those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus" (see Revelation 12:17).
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