Mary under the foot of the Cross

Magdalene loves Our Lady of Sorrows because Mary through her personal experience is able to understand the sufferings, the needs and the fragility of every person. She was the Sorrowful Virgin Mary who was constituted Mother of Charity at the foot of the Cross, when at the words of her dying Divine Son on the Cross, she gathered all of us, sinners though we are, to her heart.  It seems to us that it is important to stress a circumstance connecting devotions to Christ to devotion to Mary, which protects Magdalene’s Marian devotion, from possible sentimental or formalistic deviations and to fix it in the context of devotion to Christ according to the genuine sentiment of the Church.

Contemplating the Virgin Mother at the foot of the Cross, in total communion of feeling and will with her Son, Magdalene discovers that every act of Our Lady is a gift of self to the will of the Heavenly Father and Magdalene sees clearly that it must be her own constant attitude of offering too, an imitation of that great heart who on Calvary offered the entire life of her Son for souls.

The lives of the saints are not limited to their earthly biographies but also include their being and working in God after death. In the saints one thing becomes clear - those who draw near to God do not withdraw from men, but rather become truly close to them. In no one do we see this more clearly than in Mary. The words addressed by the Crucified Lord to his disciple - to John and through him to all disciples of Jesus: “Behold, your mother!” (Jn. 19:27) are fulfilled anew in every generation. Mary has truly become the Mother of all believers. Men and women of every time and place have recourse to her motherly kindness and her virginal purity and grace, in all their needs and aspirations, their joys and sorrows, their moments of loneliness and their common endeavors.

The depth of Christ’s Love is caught in this gaze, and the abundance of His Mercy is poured out as we see the spiritual reality of His precious Blood and Water becoming the stream of our salvation and giving birth to the Church and the Sacraments. Mary, like the stream, becomes a conduit of God’s grace and mercy through her union with Christ in His ultimate offering of Himself on the Cross.  Like Mary we are called to become vessels of God’s grace and mercy for others. Mary’s role is significant in our mission to make known God’s Merciful Love. As her own maternal Heart was expanded by the sword of sorrows at the crucifixion, so   our    hearts are expanded to embrace the world through our life of prayer and penance in union with Jesus and Mary.  In a special way, we are with Mary at the foot of the cross at each Eucharist, offering and being offered with Jesus for the salvation of the world (Catholic Catechism 1370).  In Mary’s Heart, we experience the loving care of our Mother, trust with confidence in her advocacy, and receive the holy wisdom which always shows us the way to Divine Love, incarnate in Her Son.  Our Mother and advocate teach us the true meaning of our vocation: to be contemplative penitents for love of God and for the world.