This month of September carries a special significance, for it is dedicated to Mary at the foot of the Cross — one of the most profound and revealing moments of her life and of the life of her Son, Jesus. It is the month to contemplate the exchange of Love, with a capital L, for we find ourselves on Calvary, that place where heaven and earth touch, where the Mother’s gaze and the Son’s gaze meet in a silence that says more than a thousand words.
There, in the midst of suffering, the essential and profound words are spoken: “Woman, here is your son,” “Here is your mother.” A testament of love handed down from the cross, an inheritance that transcends time and reaches us too, today, for in that disciple who remains at her side, Mary welcomes all of us as her children.
There are moments when silence becomes presence, and the situation speaks for itself. No words are needed: Love reveals itself at its fullest simply by remaining, by staying, by not fleeing when everything urges one to walk away.
Mary cannot change what is happening. As a mother, she surely does not want her Son to suffer; she would wish to draw him away from the cross, to free him from pain, to protect him as she had done so many times from Bethlehem to Nazareth. Yet she accepts, because she glimpses a greater plan, a design of far wider scope: our salvation. Her “yes” spoken at the Annunciation is now confirmed, in the darkest hour, with a “yes” that costs still more.
Mary does not take the cross away from Jesus — she neither can nor seeks to do so — but she makes sure that Jesus is not entirely alone upon it. This is her way of loving: not to resolve, not to fix, not to explain, but to be there. To stand firm, sustained by faith even when hope seems to fade.
“Being There: Mary’s Lesson at the Foot of the Cross”
