Mary’s Love and Fidelity

All Christians believe that to suffer and die with Christ is also to be resurrected with him.  Nobody suffered more than Mary. To underscore this point, the next time you consider the passion of Christ imagine your small child or grandchild undergoing the Passion, being beaten, mocked, crowned with thorns, trudging to Calvary burdened with a heavy wooden cross, submitting to spikes being driven through his hands and feet, dying, a spear thrust into his side and being taken down from the cross and placed in a tomb – never to see him or her again. Now consider that your loved child not only suffered this physical brutality but also took upon his shoulders all the evil and sins in the world and suffered and died for everyone that ever lived and would live. Taking all of this into consideration I submit that your suffering would be about as intense as any living mortal could take – perhaps more.

Mary’s life of trust and faithfulness

As if this Passion were not enough, consider now the lives of Mary and Jesus, beginning from the Messiah’s very inception. Mary consented to be pregnant without a spouse, a condition deemed worthy of death in ancient Palestine. Yet she accepted and, although there is no Biblical record to this effect, she must have been subjected to scorn, ridicule and even hatred. She suffered. Jesus was born into the most meagre of circumstances where the ox and the ass slept. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, the attire of the poor and dispossessed. His life began under the sword of Herod’s wrath with the objective of killing the newborn baby, and the Blessed Mary deals with the uncertainty that perhaps her son might be butchered at the very dawn of his life – even before the messianic journey as she would envision it, begins. Or maybe his early death would be his messianic role – to die at the hands of Herod.

So it’s off to Egypt, a dangerous and grueling 300-mile journey to remain in that land of pyramids, idols, and false gods until it was safe to return – or perhaps she would be forced to stay there in this land of idolatry forever. She couldn’t know the duration of her stay, any more than we now know how long she remained. When they returned to the land of Israel they were forced to divert to Nazareth in Galilee to avoid persecution from Archeleus, the cruel son of Herod who had died.

Another sorrow awaited Mary when the 12-year-old Jesus was lost for three days. I’ve had a 17-year-old son go missing for 6 hours and the agony and distress was off the charts. Now consider the agony and fear that must have gripped her as her beloved young son is nowhere to be found and they travel back to Jerusalem. When she finally recovered him three days later in the temple conversing with the rabbis, he reminded her that her joy was to be short-lived. He must be about his Father’s business, and could she not know that he would of course be in his Father’s house, the Temple. The shadow of the cross was always and everywhere; the Blessed Virgin knew a cruel death awaited her son.

From the age of 12 to about 30 Jesus remained with his mother where the bond of love between them must have continued to strengthen, particularly after Joseph passed away. Finally, at about the age of 30 Mary relinquished him to the world at Cana. She essentially told him it was time for him to begin his ministry and be about his Father’s business.

As Jesus went about his Father’s business, Mary saw, heard, and was told about the cruel accusations being leveled against the most innocent of sons. He was opposed and persecuted in every way as Simeon had foretold some 30 years earlier.

• He was called a blasphemer and should be put to death (Matthew 26:65-66);
• He was despised as an unlearned peasant: “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” (Matthew 13:55) or “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?” (Mark 6:3);
• He was treated as an ignorant buffoon: “How does he know scripture, having never studied?” (John 7:15);
• He was attacked as a false prophet when they blindfolded him and struck him in the face, and then sneered that he should be able to identify the one who struck him (Luke 22:64);
• He was labeled a drunkard and glutton and in league with sinners and tax collectors (Luke 7:34);
• He was looked upon and declared a madman (John 10:20);
• He was accused of being a sorcerer (Matthew 9:34);
• He was declared a heretic, possessed by the Evil One (John 18:30).

In fact, Jesus was considered so treacherous that the Jews even asserted there was no need for a trial when they handed him over to Pilate (John 18:30). All this and more were thrown at Jesus directly, and at Mary indirectly. Jesus was 100% human and 100% divine so I have a feeling that he could handle these outrages with greater equanimity than his beloved mother.

Mary had miraculously brought forth into the world the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior of the world only to see her beloved, even as an infant, targeted for death and humiliation. She was forced to flee her homeland to an alien place where Joseph scratched out a minimal existence for his family. The possibility of death to her son remained even after returning to Palestine and they were forced to settle in Nazareth to escape the jurisdictional wrath of Herod’s son. During her life Mary was exposed to all the rancorous attacks upon Jesus, only some of which are described above.

The Passion

But then came the final and most painful thrusts of all from the sword that Simeon had prophesied: The suffering of her son during the Passion. When we meditate upon the sufferings experience by Jesus during Holy Thursday and Good Friday we should experience sorrow ourselves by participating in Jesus’ sufferings. In fact, whenever Brother Lawrence meditated upon Christ’s Passion he was always moved and “changed into a different man. The humility of the Cross seemed more beautiful to him than all the glory of the world.”

Nobody could participate more intimately with Jesus in his sufferings than did Mary the Blessed Virgin, his mother. Without the gift of a divine nature and undoubtedly plagued with a level of uncertainty regardless of the strength of her faith and knowledge, think how she suffered with Jesus, certainly as intensely as he, and quite likely even more so when she heard about or witnessed directly:

• How after having prayed three times, bathed in a sweat of blood, Jesus was betrayed by Judas, arrested by the people of a nation he had chosen and elevated, accused by false witnesses, and unjustly judged by three judges.
• How he was stripped of his garments and clothed in those of derision, that he was crowned with thorns, a mocking reed placed in his hands, that he was crushed with blows and overwhelmed with affronts and outrages.
• Jesus bearing the cross, prodded and beaten by the Romans as they dragged him to a cruel death. He was wounded, torn by stripes, crowned with thorns, streaming with blood, dragged down by the heavy cross.
• The Jews nailing his sacred hands and feet to the cross by blow after blow with big blunt nails, and then with indescribable cruelty racked his body upon the cross.
• How from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet there was not one spot on his body that was not in torment.
• The grief he suffered when naked and like a common criminal, he was fastened and raised on the cross, when all his other relatives and friends abandoned him during his agony.
• The bitterness of the vinegar and gall which he tasted on the cross for love of us.
• The pain he endured when plunged in an ocean of bitterness at the approach of death, insulted, outraged by the Jews, he cried out in a loud voice that he was abandoned by his Father, saying, ”My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
• The simple and humble recommendation he made of his soul to his eternal Father, saying, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!” and with his body all torn, and his heart broken, and the bowels of his mercy open to redeem us, he expired.
• Then as the last barbarous act of the Romans a lance was thrust into his lifeless body. His physical and spiritual torment was now complete, but Mary’s, was not.
• After he was taken down from the cross Mary embraced his lifeless, bloody and torn body in her arms.
• Then to complete that awful Good Friday, those of His followers who had not fled took the body from her arms for burial. There, as Jesus lay in the tomb, Mary must have said goodbye for what she thought was the last time. Jesus her son was gone and an immense hole opened in her heart. Mary left her heart in the tomb, for that was where her treasure was. And then the great stone was rolled over the door and sealed her son in the blackness of the tomb.

Some of the description of the sufferings of Mary endured have been taken from 15 Prayers of St Bridget. Uncounted times a sword of sorrow deeply pierced the soul of Mary, but through it all she remained steadfast in her faith for Jesus.

To the extent that Jesus with his infinite love can love one of his creatures more than others it is clear that he loves Mary the most. God’s love, however, cannot be contained. He loves us so much that he gave us his only begotten son and that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Surely it is not out of order for God to give us Mary to help us in our journey to the cross. Without a doubt Mary is the most special of all of God’s creatures. Her consent at the Annunciation, her lifetime of love, faithfulness, and fortitude virtually proclaim her very special place in Jesus’ journey to the cross. It seems to me that praying to Mary for help in our spiritual life makes a lot of sense.

Some related pages, websites, and references

• Matthew 26:65-66
• Matthew 13:55
• Mark 6:3)
• John 7:15
• Luke 22:64
• Luke 7:34
• John 10:20
• Matthew 9:34
• John 18:30
• 15 Prayers of St Bridget

Footnotes and Attributions

Picture of Michelangelo’s Pietà in Saint Peter’s Basilica retrieved from Wikipedia Commons.

Last modified July 31, 2019