Jesus comes to embrace Mary as she dies, Mary: Day 267

Jesus comes to embrace Mary as she dies

St. John of Damascus imagines a conversation between Mary and Jesus as she prepares for her assumption.

As Mary was about to die, the King was there to receive with a divine embrace the holy, undefiled, and stainless soul of his mother, now on her way home. We can imagine what she might have said:

“Into your hands, my Son, I commend my spirit. Receive my soul, which is so dear to you, which you kept spotless. I give my body to you, not to the earth. Guard what you were pleased to inhabit and to preserve in virginity. Take me to yourself so that wherever you are, the fruit of my womb, there I too may be. I am drawn to you, who have descended to me. Be the consolation of my most cherished children, whom you promised to call your brethren, when my death leaves them in loneliness. Bless them afresh through my hands.”

Stretching out her hands, as we might imagine, she blessed all those present.

Then she heard these words:

“Come, my beloved Mother, to your rest. Arise and come, most dear among women; for the winter is past and gone, the harvest time is at hand. You are fair, my beloved, and there is no stain in you. Your fragrance is sweeter than all anointing oils” (see Sg 2:10–12, 4:10).

With these words in her ears, that holy woman gave up her spirit into the hands of her Son.

—St. John of Damascus, Second Homily on the Dormition

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

How do Mary’s words, as imagined by St. John, echo the words of Jesus on the Cross? What conversation would I hope to have with Jesus and Mary when the hour comes for me to leave this world behind?

CLOSING PRAYER

From “The Seven Dolors of Mary at the Death of Jesus”: Dearest Mother, when the moment of my death has come, present me as your child to Jesus; say to him on my behalf: “Son, forgive him, for he knew not what he did. Receive him this day into your kingdom.”

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