“In the throes of pains too excruciating to wrap our minds around, Jesus revealed a most precious gift offered for all of us: His mother.” (Carrie Gress and Noelle Mering in “Theology of Home” at page 203).
I have been reflecting on the agony of Christ Crucified.
At various times in my life I have encountered souls who are experiencing agony. They experience physical agony when they are physically ill. They experience mental agony when they are mentally ill. And they experience spiritual agony when they are spiritually ill.
And then there are the souls who experience terrible agony through the witness of the suffering of those who they love. Those souls too bear much pain.
And I have been thinking about those souls, whose children are sick or dying, or whose partners are making choices that ruin their lives and the lives of others in their families. And I have been reflecting on their terrible agony.
But there is more to it than that. You see, in all that agony and all that suffering, the one true thing to reflect on is the experience of the suffering of those souls and what can ber merited or gained by that suffering…
And to understand how suffering can be used for good I have been reflecting on the experience of Christ crucified.
Carrie Gress and Noelle Mering in “Theology of Home” at page 203 speak of the use of that suffering…
“In the throes of pains too excruciating to wrap our minds around, Jesus revealed a most precious gift offered for all of us: His mother. Among His seven last words, or phrases, Jesus said to Saint John the Beloved, ‘Behold, your mother!’ (John 19:27). Scripture says that from that hour on, John took Mary ‘to his own home.’ Pope Benedict XVI said that the Greek translation of the phrase ‘to his own home’ is far deeper and richer than the English. He writes, ‘We could translate it: he took Mary into his inner life, his inner being…into the depths of his being. To take Mary with one means to introduce her to the dynamism of one’s own entire existence. It is not something external.’ John served as a symbol for the rest of us. Like him, we are given the gift of a true spiritual mother, one who can mould the very depths of our being and transform us. As a trusted mother, she always points us to her Son.”
And I have been thinking about that invitation into the interior and it occurs to me today that the Blessed Virgin is the key to that. There – in enduring unspeakable anguish at the witness of the suffering of her Beloved Son, she accepted His Holy Will and took – in exchange for perfection – the imperfect Church as her child.
And in that moment – when God Himself, even in His utmost agony, called out to His mother and His beloved disciple – His mother stood at the foot of the Cross and silently accented to His request.
And I have been reflecting on that today. For there has never been a soul to suffer as much as those souls suffered that day (and until the end of the world) and yet they thought of me – even in the depths of their suffering. Now, how could I ever thank God for the gift of His Mother, who looks after me – in all my imperfection? How much He loves me, this God of mine… How very much…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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