Gospel - John 19:25-27

The Church, in the liturgy, leads us twice, for two days, one after the other, to Calvary. In fact, yesterday she made us contemplate the Cross of Jesus, and today his Mother at the Cross.

Yesterday she had us speak a word: glorious. A word which refers to the Cross of the Lord, because it brings life, it brings us to glory. Today the strongest word of the liturgy is‘Mother’. The Cross is glorious; the Mother humble, gentle, is Our Lady of Sorrows.

Meditating on the Mother leads us directly to Jesus as Son. In the passage from the Letter to the Hebrews, the Author emphasizes three strong words, speaking of Jesus as the Son: he learned, he obeyed and he suffered. Jesus, in essence learned obedience and suffered. The opposite of what had befallen our father Adam.

Thisis the glory of the Cross of Jesus who came into the world to learn to be a man and to walk with men. He came to the world in obedience and this obedience was learned through suffering.

Mary too, the Mother, follows this path of her son: she learned, she suffered and she obeyed. She became ‘Mother’. We could say that she is the ‘anointed Mother’.

This is our hope: we have mothers: first of all, Mary. And then the Church, who is Mother when she follows the same path of Jesus and Mary: the path of obedience, the path of suffering, and when her approach is to constantly learn the way of the Lord.

Mary and the Church carry on the hope which is Christ, they give us Christ, they generate Christ in us.