X. The Crucifixion - Mary at the Foot of the Cross

"Oh, all ye who pass by the way, attend and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow; for He hath made a vintage of me, as the Lord spoke in the day of His fierce anger." (Lamentations 1:12) It is Mary as well as Jesus that addresses us in these sad words of the prophet. Jerusalem, the joyous rendezvous of the sacred festivities; Jerusalem, which the prophet makes to utter these words in his Lamentations, was less desolated by the brutal hand of the infidel than was the soul of Mary by the unrelenting severity of God's justice.

We are on Golgotha. Jesus, hanging between heaven and earth, begets in His dolors a new race, an elect people, a holy family. For the family to be complete it must have a mother. Behold Her! A woman in tears takes Her place at the foot of the cross.

Stabat mater dolorosa
Juxta crucem lacrymosa,
Dum pendebat films.

"See the Mother stands deploring,
By the Cross Her tears outpouring,
Where Her Son expiring hangs."

She is there to express the more strongly the power of the will which united Her in the sacrifice of Her Saviour; She is there to receive more keenly in Her sad and desolate soul the rebound of the sufferings of Her Well-Beloved, the inexorable stroke of that sword with which She was threatened on the day of the Presentation in the Temple:

Cujus animam gementem,
Contristatam et dolentem,
Pertransivit gladius.

"For Her gentle spirit's groaning,
Anguish-smitten and bemoaning,
Rend the sword's most cruel pang."

Held by two loves - the love of Her Son and the love of Christian humanity - She decides in our favor. Her love for Her Child, the fruit of Her womb, urges Her to ask for Him. the favor of Heaven. Remember it is Her only Son of whom there is question. She has only Him; Her only Son, He owes His life to Her alone! But however tender, profound, and unutterable the love of the Virgin Mother may be, Her love for us forces from Her holy soul a fiat by which She conceives us and makes us spiritually born of Her. To the blood which flows from the wounds of the Saviour, to the death which presses on to the final scene of the awful drama of the Crucifixion, to the torments which She Herself endures, She still answers: "Fiat! fiat!" Let it be done! let it be done! But Jesus does not wait for the final issue of His sufferings. He presents to Mary the entire human race in the person of Saint John, saying to Her: " Woman, behold thy Son and to the human race He presents Mary, saying: "Behold thy Mother." (John 19)

O Virgin most amiable! Virgin most pure! to give a new life to a sinful world you were obliged to participate in the pains of a tragic child-bearing indeed. Without pain you brought forth your Child Jesus; but, like another Eve, you could not bring forth children of regeneration without feeling the effects of the malediction pronounced against the first Eve: "Thou shalt bring forth children in pain." (Genesis 3) How would you have been able to exercise your rights of Mother over the human race, if you had not acquired them in the same manner as Jesus Christ acquired the rights of a Father?

Let us meditate on this sweet and consoling thought - Mary is our Mother. She is our Mother, and we are the children of Her dolorous compassion. Is not this sufficient to tell us how much we ought to love Her? Sorrow is the mysterious cause of the love, so tender and so profound, that unites the heart of the son to the heart of the mother; and when he finds out the history of all the tears, of all the anguish, of all the pains that his birth into the world cost her, his love is enhanced all the more. Mary is our Mother. For us, Her children according to the law of grace, She sacrificed Her Child according to nature. Is not this enough to explain to us how much confidence we ought to have in Her? The great mercy with which Her heart was filled on Calvary pursues us still; it encompasses us on all sides and covers us with maternal protection. In our anguish She consoles us, in our sufferings She assists us, in temptation She comes to our rescue, in the death of sin She watches over us night and day. Like Kespha, who stood by the gibbet of her sons to keep the birds of prey from devouring their dead bodies, Mary watches by the soul dead in sin to prevent the infernal beasts and birds of prey from devouring what remains of its miserable life. She lovingly awaits and strongly excites the motives of grace by which we are pressed forward to seek a refuge in Her arms.

Mary is our Mother. She opens Her wounded heart to us. This is the same as to say that every indulgence and every indifference offends Her; that to be worthy of Her we ought, at least, to accept with resignation the trials God sends us, even if we have not the courage voluntarily to seek suffering.

Mother of holy love, make me feel the full force of your sorrow, that I may weep with you; unite my tears with yours, my compassion with yours, that I may be able to please you.

Eia mater, fons am oris,
Me sentire vim doloris
Fac, ut tecum lugeam.

Fac me tecum pie flere,
Crucifixo condolere,
Donee ego vixero.

"Grant, O Mother, love's outspringing,
Me to feel Thy sorrow's wringing,
Bid me share Thy cup of woe.

With Thee weeping in communion,
With the Crucified in union,
Long as life within me stays."