Now, as she watches her Son, condemned to death, carrying the Cross on which he must die, she might ask herself, all too humanly: So how can these words be fulfilled? In what way will he reign over the House of David? And how can it be that his kingdom will have no end?
Humanly speaking, these are reasonable questions.
But Mary remembered that, when she first heard the AngelÂs message, she had replied: ÂBehold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word (Lk 1:38).
Now she sees that her word is being fulfilled as the word of the Cross. Because she is a mother, Mary suffers deeply. But she answers now as she had answered then, at the Annunciation: ÂMay it be done to me according to your wordÂ.
In this way, as a mother would, she embraces the cross together with the divine Condemned One.
On the way of the Cross Mary shows herself to be the Mother of the Redeemer of the world.
ÂAll you who pass by the way, look and see whether there is any suffering like my suffering, which has been dealt me (Lam 1:12).
It is the Sorrowful Mother who speaks,
the Handmaid who is obedient to the last,
the Mother of the Redeemer of the world.
PRAYER
O Mary, who walked
the way of the Cross with your Son,
your motherÂs heart torn by grief,
but mindful always of your fiat
and fully confident that He to whom nothing is impossible
would be able to fulfil his promises,
implore for us and for the generations yet to come
the grace of surrender to GodÂs love.
Help us, in the face of suffering, rejection, and trial,
however prolonged and severe,
never to doubt his love.
To Jesus, your Son,
honour and glory for ever and ever.
R. Amen.
All:
Our Father ...
Stabat Mater:
Christ above in torment hangs,
she beneath beholds the pangs
of her dying, glorious Son.