John 19:25-34

Genesis 3:9-15, 20 or Acts 1:12-14

Psalm 87:1-2, 3 and 5, 6-7

John 19:25-34

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother

and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,

and Mary of Magdala.

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.”

And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

After this, aware that everything was now finished,

in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled,

Jesus said, “I thirst.”

There was a vessel filled with common wine.

So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop

and put it up to his mouth.

When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,

“It is finished.”

And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.

Now since it was preparation day,

in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath,

for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one,

the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken

and they be taken down.

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first

and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.

But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead,

they did not break his legs,

but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,

and immediately Blood and water flowed out.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, from the beginning you have prepared Mary, the Mother of your Son, to be my mother. She cares for me and asks you through her Son to attend to my prayer and give me the good things I need. With you as my Father and with Mary as my Mother I have nothing to fear.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Eve, the Sinful Mother of Humanity: One of the options for the First Reading is Genesis 3, which narrates the fall of Adam and Eve. Adam called his wife “Eve,” because she was “the mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20). When Adam and Eve sinned, God promised that the “seed of the woman,” one of Eve’s descendants, would crush the head of the serpent, the devil (Genesis 3:15). “Not only did [Eve] play a crucial role in bringing sin and death into the world but it was one of her offspring – the Messiah – who was expected to rise up one day and undo the effects of the Fall” (Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, 24). In contrast to Eve, who disobeyed God and transmitted sin and death to all her descendants, Mary is the New Eve, who through her obedience cooperated in the transmission of grace and life to all her spiritual children. Eve had an important role in the first creation; Mary, the New Eve, has an important role in the New Creation.

2. Rachel, the Sorrowful Mother of Israel: To understand the identity and role of Mary as the Mother of the Church, it is helpful to take a look back at Rachel, who was considered the Mother of Israel. Rachel was the beloved wife of Jacob and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin. Rachel’s life was filled with suffering. Her father tricked Jacob into marrying her sister, Leah, and when Rachel finally married Joseph she struggled to conceive a child. She eventually gave birth to Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob, but died giving birth to Benjamin, her second son, near Bethlehem. Rachel, however, was not just the mother of Joseph and Benjamin but was also considered the mother of all Israel, who somehow suffers with them and weeps for them, even after her death (Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, 166). The prophet Jeremiah (31:15) depicts the spirit of Rachel witnessing the suffering of her descendants as they were taken captive by the Babylonians in the sixth century B.C. She intercedes for her children and moves the heart of God. God responds to Rachel’s prayer and tells her not to cry anymore because her work will be rewarded and her children will come back to the Promised Land (Jeremiah 31:16-17) (Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, 167). In sum, “as the wife of Jacob/Israel himself, Rachel was regarded in a special way as the sorrowful mother of all Israel, whose special role was to pray for and intercede on behalf of her children, even though she was no longer here on earth” (Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, 169).

3. Mary, the Sorrowful Mother of the Church: In relation to Rachel, Mary has many important connections. First, when Matthew narrates the massacre of the innocents, he links Jeremiah’s prophecy about Rachel to Mary: Rachel is the suffering mother who is in pain for the murdered children of Bethlehem. She symbolizes the suffering of Mary. “As the suffering mother of the persecuted child who is driven into exile, Mary in Matthew’s Gospel is truly a new Rachel” (Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, 171). The Gospel of John, which we read today, also depicts Mary as the new Rachel: she becomes the mother of the Beloved Disciple through her suffering at Golgotha. Jesus compared his crucifixion to the sorrow of a woman in childbirth (John 16:21-22). The image of a sorrowing mother giving birth calls to mind Rachel’s sorrowful delivery of her second son, Benjamin (Genesis 35:16-20). “[J]ust as Rachel gave birth to her second-born son, Benjamin, through suffering and dying in childbirth, so Mary spiritually ‘gives birth’ to her second son – the Beloved Disciple – by her interior suffering and ‘dying’ at the foot of the cross” (Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, 175). Mary’s suffering, like Rachel’s, is fruitful: through her interior dying she becomes the mother of another child – the apostle John, who, as the Beloved Disciple, symbolizes the members of the Church. Just as Rachel, the mother of all Israel, was thought to be a powerful intercessor for her children, so also, Mary, the Mother of the Church, is our powerful intercessor in heaven.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you love me so much that you gave me your Mother to be my mother. She knew your sufferings and knows mine and is right now praying for me in heaven. Attend to the voice of your Mother and present her powerful prayers before the Father.

Living the Word of God: Can I find time to pray a decade of the rosary or a rosary today and contemplate the face of Jesus with Mary?