Behold Your Mother
“Woman, behold your Son.”
We are Roman Catholics and we have profound teachings from the Doctors of our Church who help us to deepen our understanding of Mary, our Mother. St. Thomas Aquinas said “She said ‘Yes” in the name of all human nature and so she became the new Eve – the mother of the living.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church article 511)
Christ does not name John when He says “Behold your Mother”, because John is us … sons and daughters of Christ’s bride … His Church, for all time. And Christ is telling His Mother Behold – your children!
There was no sentimentality in Christ’s command. He was not taking a moment form the scene of horrific suffering on His cross to ensure that His Mother would be taken care of. So, why did He give her to John? Jewish tradition held that a woman left widowed and childless would go to live with extended family members, no matter how distant. What was it that Mary embodied that made Christ want to give her to all humanity, as Spiritual Mother for all time?
Woman, behold your son
We’re usually directed to think of John taking protection of Mary but we are focusing on Christ’s command to her, Woman behold your son. What did Mary have to give to John and to all humanity who were to become her children?
Mary was a woman of silence. A contemplative pray-er. United with God. She had disciplined the young Christ, which was again Jewish tradition, that the Mother in a Jewish home would teach Scripture to her children. But as Christ matured He disciplined her in the mystical silences of God. She was filled with His Holy Spirit. She became completely His silent, contemplative mystic – and this was one mystical lesson she had to teach John – silence in contemplative mysticism (Pope Benedict XVI). And she taught him well. Her schooling prepared him to write the fourth Gospel as well as the Apocalypse, the book which reveals the end times, the very word “apocalypse” in literal translation means unveiling or revealing. But what else did John learn from Mary? St Paul tells us that Jesus “emptied Himself”, if we look into John’s Gospel, we will notice a seemingly small but profoundly significant absence which lets us know that another aspect of Mary’s teaching was fully understood by John. Jesus was full of self-emptiness and he taught His Mother to also be empty of self. John never once gives Mary a name in the whole of his Gospel. He only refers to her as the “Mother of Jesus”. It’s as if she no longer has a personal dimension, is empty of self, other than being the “Mother of Jesus”.
So what did Mary have that Jesus wanted her to teach John and all of us?
Inner silence.
Contemplative prayer.
Self-emptiness.
And as we are to see when she “stands” at the foot of the Cross, one other lesson to learn from her – how to suffer for and with other.
John’s Gospel goes on to tell us that “John took her from that day into his home.” What home is the evangelist referring to? If he is us, then his home, our home, is our heart. We have to take Mary into our heart – the place where God dwells within us. What will she give us, this “Woman” who was commanded to adopt us? She will find Christ within us just as she found Him in the Temple; she will school us just as she did Him when He was a child; she will teach us as she taught John; she will lead us into the Wisdom and Love and depths of prayer where the mysteries of God will be revealed to us. She will be our Mother and we will be her child. And her protection is mighty.
St. Bonaventure reminds us that “Men do not fear a powerful, hostile army as the powers of hell fear the name and protection of Mary.”
It is for all these reasons that St. Louis de Montfort, known as the prophet of the end times, strongly encourages each of us to take Mary into “our home” and become her child by consecrating ourselves to Jesus through Mary.
