IV. Jesus meets Mary
Jesus met his mother as he was being led to his execution. Mary did not faint; she did not scream in rage or despair; she did not try to prevent the soldiers from torturing him more. She looked him in the eyes and knew that this was his hour. In Cana, when she had asked his help, he said: “Woman, …My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4) But now his sorrow and her sorrow merged in a deep knowledge of the hour in which God’s plan of salvation was being fulfilled. Mary’s sorrow has made her not only the mother of Jesus, but also the mother of all her suffering children. She stood under the cross; she stands there still and looks into the eyes of those who are tempted to respond to their pain with revenge, retaliation, or despair. Her sorrow has made her heart a heart that embraces all her children, wherever they may be, and offers them maternal consolation and comfort.
Excerpt from Henri Nouwen’s Walk With Jesus, Orbis Books. Posted with the kind permission of the publisher.
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February 23rd, 2008 @ 9:43 am
My understanding is that the love between Jesus and Mary was so intense that Mary felt every pain of Jesus; Jesus felt her pain as well. It is “closed loop”; the more Jesus felt pain the more that Mary felt pain. I am told that her sorrow was so great that if we experienced even a small part of it, it would cause our death
February 22nd, 2008 @ 3:35 pm
Jesus Meets Mary – As parents, we’re just naturally protective of our children. We want to protect them from hurt, disappointment and sometimes even life. But Jesus meets Mary and in her sorrow at seeing her Son in the process of a painful, horrible crucifixion. She’s grown in the years since she and Joseph lost Jesus at the Temple at Passover. She understands His mission. Now she can be supportive, ministering and involved without railing against the Romans, the Palm Sunday pleasantries turn to Good Friday fickleness and the God who was allowing all this to happen. Can we say to God for our children, “Not my will but Thine be done?” Can we see purpose in pain of those about us? And walk with them in their pain?
February 22nd, 2008 @ 10:53 am
The last sentence of this meditation, “In the midst of it all, I have to keep choosing the ever-narrowing path, the path of sorrow, the path of hope” and this whole meditation helped me today to grasp more clearly that part in the scriptures where it says there is a wide path and a narrow path and people often don’t choose the narrow path. I’m thankful for Mary’s faith and for the faith of all the sorrowful women and sorrowful men who blaze the trail for us through the narrow path, following Jesus.