When Christ wept, He wept for His Mother – for she really does not deserve the suffering I have inflicted on her…
In the Bible, there are only three times when Christ wept.
He wept when he saw Jerusalem and knew that the people of Jerusalem would reject Him, He wept.
When He saw the widow mourning her dead son – before raising the boy back to life – He wept.
When He stood outside the tomb of Lazarus – before raising him back to life – He wept.
I was always a little confused by the weeping of Christ. After all, when He was being tortured and mistreated He did not weep. When they tried to throw Him from a cliff or misinterpret His words, He did not weep. When He was being nailed to the Cross, He did not weep. When He saw His mother in the crowds during His passion, while He carried His Cross, He did not weep. When Simon Peter and all His apostles (except Saint John the Beloved) ran away and rejected Him, He did not Weep.
So why did He weep during these three times?
He wept for Jerusalem because He knew that the rejection of the Messiah by the Israelites would lead to generational suffering and persecution of the Jewish people through the millennia. This is not to say that their persecution was a direct punishment for their rejection of the Messiah, rather it is to say that because they rejected the Messiah, they remained a minority throughout the ages, and during period of great injustice, this positioning meant that they were persecuted more easily than others. It also meant that the chosen children of God were unable to benefit from the rewards of Eternal Salvation. And for a Father this is heartbreaking. The very people He came to save and love rejected Him and He was unable to save them because of their own free will.
He wept for the widow and outside of Lazarus’ tomb for a completely different reason. He wept there because He could feel the grief of those who mourned. And in experiencing that grief, He was able to anticipate the infinitely greater grief of His own Beloved Mother at the witness of His own death. But more than this. The Blessed Virgin’s grief was infinitely more because in accepting Saint Johnas her son (at the foot of the Cross), the Blessed Virgin also accepted all of God’s Holy Church. And this means that she accepted all the tarnished, damaged, sinful, wounded souls contained in the Church. And in accepting those souls, she was assuming the pain and heartbreak of loving wayward children.
And Christ knew what a sacrifice this was for her and He knew what her suffering would be. Because the Blessed Virgin is a mirror of God. She emptied herself of herself to enable God to use every part of her for His Holy Will… And in knowing this, Christ knew the suffering of the Blessed Virgin – for it would mirror His own suffering.
And I have realised today that when Christ wept, He wept for His Mother – for she really does not deserve the suffering I have inflicted on her…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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