IV
JESUS MEETS HIS BLESSED MOTHER
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
Because by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
No sooner has Jesus risen from his first fall than he meets his Blessed Mother, standing by the wayside where he is passing. With immense love Mary looks at Jesus, and Jesus at his mother. Their eyes meet, and each heart pours into the other its own deep sorrow. Mary's soul is steeped in bitter grief, the grief of Jesus Christ. O all you that pass by the way, look and see, was there ever a sorrow to compare with my sorrow! (Lam 1:12). But no one notices, no one pays attention; only Jesus. Simeon's prophecy has been fulfilled: Thine own soul a sword shall pierce. (Lk 2:35). In the dark loneliness of the Passion, our Lady offers her son a comforting balm of tenderness, of union, of faithfulness; a "yes" to the divine will. Hand in hand with Mary, you and I also want to console Jesus, by accepting always and in everything the will of his Father, of our Father. Only this will we taste the sweetness of Christ's cross and come to embrace it with all the strength of Love, carrying it in triumph along the ways of the earth. |
Meditating on the picture, pray: one Our Father, one Hail Mary and one Glory be.