Mary’s soul was crucified, Mary: Day 334

Mary’s soul was crucified

In a sense, St. Alphonsus concludes, two crucifixions took place on Calvary: that of Jesus’ body, and that of Mary’s soul.

O God, what a cruel sight it was to behold this Son in agony on the cross, and at its foot this mother in agony, suffering all the torments endured by her Son! Listen to the words in which Mary revealed to St. Bridget the sorrowful state in which she saw her dying Son on the Cross: “My dear Jesus was breath- less, exhausted, and in his last agony on the Cross. His eyes were sunken, half- closed, and lifeless. His lips were hanging, and his mouth was open. His cheeks were hollow and drawn in. His face was elongated, his nose sharp, his counte- nance sad. His head had fallen down against his breast. His hair was black with blood; his stomach collapsed; his arms and legs were stiff; and his whole body was covered with wounds and blood.”

All these sufferings of Jesus were also those of Mary. “Every torture inflicted on the body of Jesus,” says St. Jerome, “was a wound in the heart of the mother.” “Whoever then was present on the Mount of Calvary,” says St. John Chrysos- tom, “could see two altars, on which two great sacrifices were consummated: the one in the body of Jesus, the other in the heart of Mary.”

Better still, we might say with St. Bonaventure: There was only one altar— that of the cross of the Son. On it, together with this victim, the divine Lamb, the mother was also sacrificed.” So the saint asks this mother, “O Lady, where are you? Near the Cross? No, rather, you are on the Cross, crucified, sacrificing yourself with your Son.” St. Augustine assures us of the same truth: “The cross and nails of the Son were also those of his mother; with Christ crucified, the mother was also crucified.” As St. Bernardine writes: “At the same time that the Son sacrificed his body, the mother sacrificed her soul.”

—St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

What does it mean to say that on Calvary “there were two great altars”? Have I brought my offerings of gratitude to both of those altars?

CLOSING PRAYER

From the Stabat Mater Dolorosa: Holy Mother, pierce me through! In my heart each wound renew of my Savior crucified. Let me share with thee his pain, who for all my sins was slain, who for me in torments died.

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