Jesus Dies on the Cross

Catholic presentation

The fifth sorrowful mystery

True love breeds true loyalty.  And Jesus loved the Father through to the bitter end.  When the last drops of His energy were near exhasted, and death was near, the Father withdrew, and Jesus faced the agony of His tortured death alone.  But the loyalty of true love held firm.  The Devil no doubt called out, but Jesus never said stop to the agony, never said stop to the exhaustion, never said stop at all.  With his last breath he commended His spirit to the Father's care.

It's a strange vitory that our Lord won that day on Calvary.  As so often with the ways of God, it works in the opposite way to what our worldly thought would expect.  In giving His life up for our sins, for our salvation, the deadly and heavy wood of the cross, painted so darkly in the previous scene, has become like the green wood of the tree of Life (Gen 2:9 & 3:22).  God's plan of paradise for mankind is being patched in this very scene.  The words of the Easter Liturgy put it this way: "Oh happy fault.." (original sin) "..that won for us so great a redeemer".

Death had entered the world through one man's sin, and now, through the death of one man the power of sin was conquered.

More precisely it was one man (Adam) and one woman (Eve) whose sin of yielding to temptation lost us paradise.  And it was through the death of one man (Jesus) following His refusal to yield to temptation, and one woman's (Mary's) selfless obedience to the will of God (Luke 1:38), that the power of sin was eventually overcome.

This is why we not only call Jesus "the new Adam", but at his side stands the one we call "the new Eve" (ccc 975).  Simeon had said to Mary that a sword will pierce your soul too (Luke 2:35).  Here we see her paying a price which flowed from our sin, and from her association with God.  In obedience and love she bore these momentous and terrible events.  She gave herself to God, and in doing so God would be given to us.  Now she stood obediently at Jesus' side as He was offerred up for our salvation.

But the first Eve's role hadn't been just to 'not eat apples'.  God had intended for her to be the mother of all humanity.  So too with the second Eve.  Jesus didn't stop at making Mary a mother to Himself.  Just before Jesus died He gave Mary to us, to the whole church:

John 19:26 When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he said to his mother: Woman, behold thy son.

27 After that, he said to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own.

John is the only Apostle to stand by our Lord at this time.  But Jesus knows the Apostles are to regroup.  When the disciple took Mary to 'his own' it doesn't have to mean his family in particular, though in practical terms they might have been involved.  The Apostles would have had to leave family to follow Jesus, and soon many would travel even further than before.  Mary on the other hand was already with her own sister (John 19:25) and had wider family (Matthew 12:46): these might offer resources to help support her if all else failed.  Yet Jewish tradition I'm told, required Mary's sons to look after her, and not her sister or cousins.  If Mary had any other sons after Jesus, they'd have had an automatic duty to care for her.  But of course Jesus was her only son!  So our lord appointed John to take His place in caring for Mary.

However the apostles would soon face dangers and ultimately many would be killed.  Jesus didn't link Mary with John to put her into the line of danger but for a good purpose.  If indeed her wider relations had other resources from which to help her out, then the arrangement with John may have had less to do with shelter than we might think.  Rather it would point to the fact that tradition upholds, namely that when John took Mary to his own home, he took her into the community of Apostles which we would soon identify as the Church of Jesus.

Now Mary might have thought she was losing her son's body to the tomb, but with the benefit of hindsight we see that Jesus arranged that she would recover access to Him - in the body of the Church of which He is the head (Acts 1:14, Colossians 1:18)!  More importantly still, in his earthly life, Jesus had use of a mother who was pure in heart (Luke 1:28, Matthew 5:8).  If such a mother was good for God to have, then clearly she could be good for us too.  God does what is good:

When Jesus makes Mary John's mother, he makes her a mother to us all.  She is now called the Mother of the Church (ccc 501, 963), and if you'll alow her, she can be your spiritual mother too.  God is our Father in heaven, our brother, our saviour and constant advisor, the bread of life, our helper and support.  And by His grace Mary prays for us with the devotion that only a mother can have.  By His grace she will guide and support us towards the light of the world - if we let her!

A wise old priest once told me without any embarassment, that he clings to Mary's skirt at all times, good and bad, in any troubles.  And he encouraged me and other young people like me to do so too, at all times and for our life long.  Even when out of foolishness, or troubles, or pride, we can't or won't pray to Jesus.  Cling to Mary and she won't let you down he said.  Give your life to God through Mary and she'll guide you home.  When I failed and fell away from faith, she delivered me back to the Church - and that's why you have this website now.  It's the least I could do for God and for Mary.  And it's the least I could do for you gentle reader, out of the love of God.