Memorial of Our
Lady of Sorrows
(I Timothy 3:1-13; John 19:25-27)
Most people think of Jesus in the gospel today as
providing a home for his widowed mother.
Such understanding, however, ignores the fact that Jesus has brothers who
advise him (see John 7:3-7). Catholic
dogma prohibits thinking of these men as Mary’s physical sons. But it is quite possible that they would care
for her just as they show a worldly concern for Jesus. There must be another, deeper explanation for
Jesus giving his mother to the disciple whom he loved.
It should be remembered that the “beloved disciple” is
distinctive precisely for his faith in Jesus.
After Mary Magdalene tells Peter and him that Jesus’ body was not to be
found in his tomb, the two race to investigate the situation. Peter enters the tomb first and is said to
have noticed Jesus’ burial cloths. Then
the disciple whom Jesus loved enters and is said to have seen and believed.
In today’s passage Jesus gives Mary to his beloved
disciple. He is said to have taken Mary
into “his own.” Home is the interpretation most translators give, but the Greek
is actually less precise. It is quite
possible that “his own” is his faith in Jesus as Lord which Mary now
accepts. She is physically a “mother of
sorrows” because she has witnessed the death of her only son. She is even more sorrowful because the Lord
of Creation has died the most humiliating of deaths to redeem sinful humanity
of its sins.
Faithful to the Gospel of John, we too believe in Jesus as
Lord. He has died so that we, accepting
him as Lord and imitating his ways, may live with him in glory.
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