Behold your mother.

Before He died, Jesus gave the Apostle John what He holds most precious / His mother, Mary. These are the Redeemer’s last words, which he addresses to his own, and so they take on a solemn character and constitute something like a spiritual testament. At the cross on which the one she conceived at the Annunciation dies, Mary receives as it were a `second annunciation’: `Woman, behold your son!” (Jn 19:26). On the cross, the Son can entrust his pain to the heart of the Mother. Every son who suffers feels this need.

You, too, dear faithful, are often confronted with suffering: loneliness, setbacks and disappointments in personal life, difficulties in professional life, disagreements in the family, and many others. But even in the most challenging moments, which are not lacking in everyone’s life, you are not alone. Like John at the foot of the cross, Jesus gives you his Mother to strengthen you with her tenderness. The Gospel then says that “from that hour the disciple took her to himself” (Jn 19:27). This expression does not merely denote the place where John lived; instead, it evokes the spiritual dimension of such a welcome – the new bond that is formed between Mary and John. Jesus also asks us to take Mary to ourselves, to learn from her how to respond generously to God, for this is what distinguished her as God’s first collaborator in the work of salvation. By continuing to fulfill her maternal role, she will educate and form us for an ever better knowledge of Christ.

The first word of Jesus from the cross belonged to the spiritually most remote: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:33). This second, “your son” and “your mother” (Jn 19:26-27), belonged to those closest to him: His mother and the disciple whom He loved most. He puts them in a family relationship with these words, making them one household. But it was also a further unity between them. He gives this disciple to his Mother as one who, by listening to and carrying out his word, was doing God’s will, becoming his brothers and, of course, her sons, thus creating a new family, the Church. ` She stood at the cross of Jesus to pronounce once more her fiat, by which she entered into cooperation with God. To pronounce it also in this painful way, by her presence under the cross of her Son. Mary believed Son’s words from the cross, and John thought them too. This faith of theirs did not consist of words alone but gave birth to the Church – the new family of God. If we are well aware of what it took to form this family: the Father, the Son, his Mother, and the many others who were included in it and sustained it, we will not so easily disturb the connection that exists between the founders of this community of faith, hope, and love and us.

In Mary’s school, we can discover the concrete tasks Christ expects of us. We can learn to put him first in our lives and focus our thoughts and actions on him. Jesus knows the hearts and thoughts of every person, even their deepest desires. Only he who loved to man so much can fill his seat. His words are eternal life; they are the words that give meaning to life.

If we follow Our Lady’s example, we can say our `yes’ to Him. This is also important in our time when humanity needs the witness of those who dares to proclaim their faith in God, Lord, and Savior with joy and enthusiasm. In time, we too may come to recognize that this mission is not easy or straightforward; we too may one day stand under the cross of pain like Mary, but if we reflect on our pains with her, she will lead us safely to Jesus, who will wipe away every tear from our eyes.

God puts a mother with every human being to give birth and nurture them. At the foot of the cross, where we are spiritually born, the Son of God gives us His Mother. Let us receive her with joy and strive to do what the disciple John did: to take her to ourselves and keep her before our eyes as an example of love for God and all our brothers and sisters.