Mary meets Jesus on the way to Calvary, Mary: Day 330

Mary meets Jesus on the way to Calvary

St. Alphonsus imagines the scene when Jesus meets Mary as he carried the Cross to his execution.

Mary goes with St. John to see Jesus on the way to Calvary. She later reveals to St. Bridget: “By the footsteps of my Son, I knew where he had passed; for along the way the ground was marked with blood.” St. Bonaventure imagines the afflicted mother taking a shorter way, and placing herself at a street corner, to meet her afflicted Son as he is passing by. While Mary is waiting in that place, how much she must hear spoken against her beloved Son by the crowd! They soon recognize her, and perhaps even mock Mary herself. What a scene of sor- rows then presents itself before her: the nails, the hammers, the cords, the fatal instruments of the death of her Son, all of which are carried ahead of him. And what a sword to her heart must be the sound of that trumpet that proclaims the sentence pronounced against her Jesus!

She raises her eyes and sees—O God!—a young Man covered with blood and wounds from head to foot, a wreath of thorns on his head, and two heavy beams on his shoulders. She looks at him, and hardly recognizes him. Yes, because of the wounds, the bruises, and the clotted blood, he can no longer be identified. But at last love reveals him to her, and as soon as she knows that it is indeed Jesus, what love and fear must then fill her heart!

On the one hand, she desires to behold him. On the other, she dreads so heart-rending a sight. At last they look at each other. The Son wipes from his eyes the clotted blood that prevents him from seeing and looks at his mother, as the mother looks at her Son: looks of bitter grief that, like so many arrows, pierce through and through those two beautiful and loving souls. —St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Of all the traditional sorrows of the Blessed Mother, some would say this is the most poignant. If I imagine myself present at the scene that day, what do I imagine myself saying and doing—or wishing I could say and do?

CLOSING PRAYER

From a prayer of St. Alphonsus: My most loving Jesus, by the sorrow you expe- rienced in this meeting, grant me the grace of a truly devoted love for your most holy mother. And you, my Queen, who were overwhelmed with sorrow, obtain for me by your intercession a continual and tender remembrance of the passion of your Son.

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