The gesture of standing is significant. We stand when the national anthem of our country is played even though we may be tired and prefer to sit. We “take a stand” for causes that we believe in. At Mass we stand when the Gospel is read and again when the Our Father is recited. Standing is a gesture of strength and support for something that we regard to be more important than ourselves.
Today we honor Mary under the title of “Our Mother of Sorrows.” We are invited to join her during her moment of greatest suffering, when she stood beneath the cross of her battered son (John 19:25-27).
“Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.”
Watching her son die a horrible death, Mary, I’m sure would have preferred to collapse on the ground beneath the cross, bury her head in her hands, and weep profusely. Instead she and her companions stood up for Jesus. They were loyal to him and honored him up to his last breath. Mary was a source of strength to her Son at the moment of his greatest weakness. And standing allowed her to keep her eyes fastened to those of her suffering Son, and thus remind him of how much she loved him.
As Jesus gazed into the eyes of his mother, he gave her a final and lasting assignment.
“When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother.’”
Mary’s mission did not end at the cross. There she was given a new and lasting mission. We notice that Jesus did not address her as “mother” or even “Mary” but as “woman.” She was no longer a humble woman from Nazareth but the new woman—we call her the “new Eve”—blessed among all women.
We notice also that Jesus did not call John by his name, but rather addressed him as “your son”—Mary’s new son. And as “son” he stood in the place of all men and women who would choose, as John did, to give their lives to Jesus and put him first in their lives. Jesus knew how much he needed his mother, and, so, knew how much each of his disciples would also need her. Disciples of Jesus, from that moment on, would never be without “the woman”—his mother—standing next to them, even to the point of their deaths.
Each time we pray the “Hail Mary” we say, “Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.” We are assured that we have the support and strength of Mary at this moment in our life, and that she will be standing next to us at the hour of death even as she did for Jesus.
Sorrow, suffering, and grief are woven into the lives of each of us. If we’ve decided to follow Jesus, then we’ve taken his cross on our shoulders. Rather than being weakened by the cross, we are strengthened by it. In bearing our cross we are taking “a stand” for Jesus, and are participating in his suffering for the salvation of souls. And when the cross seems to be heavy, we glance into the eyes of Mary and notice that she is standing there beside us, never to leave.
“Blessed are you, O Virgin Mary; without dying you won the martyr’s crown, beneath the Cross of the Lord” (today’s alleluia verse).
