Accompanying Him on the cross

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HER son Jesus always made clear that his life here on earth would end on the cross – insulted, maltreated, and made to die, while hanging on the cross. Moreover, he insisted that this had to be so in order to save us from our sins.

Virtually no one of the disciples of Jesus believed that this would come to pass. It was too horrible an idea to entertain in anyone’s head. But Mary was different: She knew how to ponder things in her heart, and from the start she knew that in the end a sword would pierce her heart on account of her son.

Thus, after the three glorious years of the public life of her son, who worked miracles, taught, and preached all over Judea and Galilee, the gruesome end had to come, with the most violent and painful death anyone could imagine. For Mary, her role and duty (indeed, her second-to-the last vision in life) was to be there with her Son, when he had to suffer and die.

As tradition would have it, she was there when he walked through the streets of Jerusalem, carrying the cross, on his way to Golgotha. She gave him whatever comfort and consolation a mother could give. She suffered as any mother would suffer upon seeing her son on his way to his crucifixion and death. Their sufferings were conjoined – his and hers: She gave us a lesson on suffering. When we suffer (as she did), we join that suffering w ith the sufferings of Jesus on his way to the cross; and by doing so, we share in the redemptive work of Jesus (just as Mary did).

As Scripture would record it, she was there at the foot of the cross. And as she stood there, continuing to suffer together with her son, she was astounded by the gift Jesus made of her to become the mother – through John – of all men and women, and by the privilege all men and women were given to become the stand-in children of Mary.

And as tradition would have it – beautifully enshrined in the statue of the Pieta sculpted by Michelangelo – she embraced the lifeless body of her son upon being taken down from the cross. She must have helped prepare his body for speedy burial; and like the other holy women who were also by the grave where the body was entombed, she must have taken careful note of everything concerning the burial of her son.

Her son Jesus always looked forward to the cross on which he would die. This was the culminating moment of his work on earth as Saviour; and this was the moment for which he came down from heaven. For such a momentous event, Mary had to be by her son. She had to be by his side.

Thus, the words addressed to her when she and Joseph presented the child Jesus in the temple prophesying that a sword would pierce her heart were fulfilled. When a solider pierced the heart of the lifeless Jesus on the cross, to ensure that he was already and actually dead – Mary’s heart was pierced as well. She after all made her son’s sufferings her very own; and she offered her own deep sorrow as a complement to the sufferings and sorrow of her son, in his supreme and culminating moment of redeeming us.

No wonder, Mary is regarded – and venerated – as a co-redeemer along with her son, who died on the cross to redeem us.