And all the multitude of them that were come together to that sight, and saw the things that were done, returned striking their breasts. And there were also women, among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the Mother of James the less, and of Joseph, and Salome, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee, who also when He was in Galilee followed Him, and ministered to Him, and many other women that came up with Him to Jerusalem. And all his acquaintance and the women stood afar off beholding these things. - Matthew 27:55,56; Mark 15:40,41; Luke 23:48,49
1. "All the multitude of them that were come together to that sight." So this was a "sight," a show, a spectacle, this murder of the Son of God! And a great "multitude" had come to witness it! Of whom was that multitude composed? We have heard the crowd crying out its ridicule and blasphemies as He lay bleeding to death; are these the same people that now go back, "striking their breasts"? It is scarcely credible, though perhaps some were in the number; just as, with all great sin, the sense of remorse at the moment of achievement overtakes the sense of satisfaction in the sin, and turns the cup of pleasure into bitterness. This bitterness some take for contrition, but it is not that; it is the physical and moral reaction, and is the natural basis upon which true contrition may be built. Possibly in the case of these poor Jews the sense of remorse endured, the fruits of which were to be reaped by Saint Peter after Pentecost.
2. But the words seem to imply that besides the murderers and their mob following was another "multitude" standing outside, of merely curious spectators; and on these in His last moments Our Lord had pity. They had been passive all the time, but their very silent acquiescence had told against Him. They again confirm the truth, witnessed to by the history of the world, that the "multitude" is usually little guilty of the great crimes against God that are committed; it is the leaders who provoke the crime that "have the greater sin." Hence we often hear in Scripture that Our Lord "had pity on the multitude"; that He was "filled with compassion" for it; that He drew it after Him; and here He gives it sorrow for its share in the evil that has been done.
3. And somewhere in this crowd, unmolested by anyone, probably pitied, perhaps by their presence and behaviour stirring in those around sorrow and sympathy for Our Lord, is the group of faithful women, so pointedly mentioned by the Evangelists, who had followed Him in Galilee, and had ministered to His wants, and had thus, under His direction, laid the foundation of the work of women in the Church, trained in some sense by Our Lord Himself, even as had been the Apostles. These now had been rewarded for their faithful service by being given their special place on Calvary; and for all time will be honoured and imitated by other faithful women-servants of Our Lord, who in their turn will be rewarded by a share in the Crucifixion women in the world, women in religion, saints marked with the insignia of the Passion a Gertrude, a Catherine, a Theresa. They did nothing; they only stood and looked on; but their presence must have been no small joy to Our Lord in His last hour.
Summary
1. The remorse of the first group.
2. The contrition of the second group.
3. The sorrow and sympathy of the third group.
- from The Crown of Sorrow, by Archbishop Alban Goodier