4. God the Father, rich in mercy, has given his earthly children an Immaculate Mother: the Mother of Jesus. As we heard in the Gospel, high on the Cross, the supreme seat of love and sacrifice, Jesus speaks to his Mother and to the disciple. To his Mother he said: “Woman, behold, your son!”. He then said to the disciple: “Behold, your Mother!” (cf. Jn 19:25-27). Looking at Our Lady of Sorrows, who dominates the apse of this church, we can better understand that Mary’s new motherhood in the order of grace is the fruit of the love which achieved its full growth at the foot of the cross, through her participation in the Son’s redeeming love. In this way Mary acquired a new title on Calvary, which is why she is and can be called the spiritual Mother of her Son’s brothers and sisters.
Jesus entrusts us to Mary as our Mother, and Mary receives us all as her children! This is Christ’s testament on the Cross. On the one hand, he entrusts the Church to the care of his own Mother; on the other, he entrusts his Mother to the care of the Church. The scene on Calvary reveals to us the secret of true Marian piety, which is a filial love of surrender and gratitude to Mary, a love of imitation and of consecration to her person.
. . . To take Mary in, to offer her the throne of our hearts and minds, has a profound meaning which is far deeper than mere sentiment: it is the experience of our own poverty, which turns confidently to Mary’s all-powerful pleading with the Father; it is uniting our own will to Mary’s, saying “yes” as she did, so that Christ will fully enter our lives.
