“Behold your mother!”, Mary: Day 248

“Behold your mother!”

Because of Mary’s ardent desire to aid in our salvation, St. Alphonsus declares, Jesus made her on Calvary the mother of our souls.

Our most loving mother Mary was always, and in all things, united to the will of God. “And for this reason,” says St. Bonaventure, “when she saw the love of the Eternal Father toward men to be so great that, in order to save them, he willed the death of his Son; and, on the other hand, when she saw the love of the Son in wishing to die for us; in order to conform herself to this abundant love of both the Father and the Son toward the human race, she also with her entire will offered, and consented to, the death of her Son, in order that we might be saved.”

It is true that, according to Isaiah’s prophecy, Jesus—in dying for the redemption of the human race—chose to be alone. But seeing the ardent desire of Mary to aid in the salvation of man, he disposed it so that she, by the sacri- fice and offering of the life of her Jesus, should cooperate in our salvation, and thus become the mother of our souls. This our Savior indicated when, before breathing his last, he looked down from the Cross upon his mother and upon the disciple St. John, who stood at its foot.

First addressing Mary, he said, “Behold your Son” (Jn 19:26). In effect, he was saying, “Behold, the whole human race, which by the offering you make of my life for the salvation of all, is even now being born into the life of grace.”

Then, turning to the disciple, he said, “Behold your mother” (Jn 19:27). “By these words,” says St. Bernardine of Siena, “Mary, by reason of the love she bore them, became the mother not only of St. John, but of all men.”

—St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

 IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

What does it mean to say that Mary “also with her entire will offered, and con- sented to, the death of her Son, in order that we might be saved”? How agonizing would that consent have been?

CLOSING PRAYER

From “The Seven Dolors of Mary at the Death of Jesus”: Eternal Father, we offer you the blood, the passion, and the death of Jesus Christ, the sorrows of Mary most holy, and of St. Joseph, in satisfaction for our sins, in aid of the holy souls in purga- tory, for the needs of holy mother Church, and for the conversion of sinners.

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