The Third Word

 “When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”  Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.” John 19:26-27.

 

Christ on the Cross with Mary and John

The Lord’s concern was always our salvation and it was for this reason he had come. He emptied himself completely. Now on the cross, and even in his most desperate pain, his first concern was for others. It could not be otherwise and so he asked for forgiveness for his persecutors and He forgave the good thief and promised him paradise.

But the Creator of the Universe would not limit his message and grace to the next world. He couldn’t for he was pure Love and His domain includes all that is visible and invisible. Consequently, he told his mother to look upon his disciple at the foot of the cross as her son, and for John to look upon Jesus’ mother as his mother. In doing so he was again following his own commandment to honor thy father and mother. Once again Jesus was setting an example,

But the eternal meaning of what he said is far more profound. As is always the case with Jesus we need to examine and contemplate his messages from a spiritual and eternal viewpoint. His sermon from the cross cannot be confined to secular needs. We must always dig deeper to find the real treasure.

We begin by looking at the curious way Jesus addressed his beloved mother. He didn’t say “Mother” or “Mom.” He said “Woman.” To our ears this form of salutation seems cold and remote. But we need to immerse ourselves in the biblical lexicon to unwrap the deeper significance of what Jesus was saying.

This wasn’t the first time Jesus addressed his mother as ‘woman.’ At Cana (see The Luminous Mysteries- Jesus Proclaims the Gospel – The Wedding at Cana), Mary told Jesus that the wedding party had no more wine. His response (John 1:4-5): “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother seemed to be saying, “We’ll see about that,” when she said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you,” clearly seeking a miracle. But she knew that once he performed a miracle there would be no turning back. He would be on the road to Calvary. His life as a carpenter and her son would be disrupted forever. They both knew that he was going pay the ultimate price, and Mary knew that it was time for his irrevocable journey to begin. She released him to the world for the benefit of all, and Jesus addressed her as ‘woman.’

When Jesus was twelve and Mary found him in the temple, she addressed him as “Son.” At Cana their relationship changed when she released him to the world. She was still his mother but now, as ‘woman,’ he was not just his beloved mother. Her role was infinitely larger.

The first Eve, the mother of humanity, rejected the divine will. The second Eve, the mother of Jesus, accepted the divine will of the New Covenant by thrice saying yes: first at the Annunciation and 30 years later at Cana. Then, at the foot of the cross with her battered and nail-pierced son stretched out above her, bleeding and suffering, she did not abandon him. As Simeon in the Temple had prophesied her heart was being savagely and unmercifully pierced.

On the cross Jesus addressed Mary with the same title he used at Cana, “Woman.” Jesus said, “Woman, behold your son.” He didn’t say, “Mother, behold John,” because he would then be addressing her as his mother, and John as the son of Zebedee and no one else. The anonymity Jesus bestowed upon John meant that he stood for all mankind. To his beloved disciple he said, “Behold thy mother,” and John who represented all of us and not just himself was given over to Mary and she became the mother of men.

In the Canticle of Mary following her visit to Elizabeth (The Joyful Mysteries: The Birth and Childhood of Jesus – The Visitation) she said that all ages would call her blessed. And she was blessed. First, in Bethlehem she became the mother of the Lord. Then, 33 years later at Calvary she was divinely blessed again when she became our mother at the second birth the moment Jesus commended her to the disciple he loved. Her love now encompassed not just Jesus, but the entire world.

“Woman, behold they son. . . Behold thy mother.”

Some websites and references

Footnotes and Attributions

Christ on the Cross with Mary and John by Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538) retrieved from WikiArt.

Last modification August 4, 2019