The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery offers a poignant glimpse into the relationship between Mother and Son. What unspeakable sadness pierced Mary’s heart as she watched her Son fall beneath the weight of the cross. Along the way the eyes of Jesus and Mary met, eyes that showed the depth of love, the fullness of compassion, and the generous longing to suffer what the other was suffering in their stead. So attuned to each other’s love, they had no need to speak. Certainly a paradigm of kything. The silent message was “Let it be done. I will what God’s wills. I will not take away your pain, for this pain will hollow you to receive the greatest capacity for God’s life and love, despite smothering feelings of utter abandonment, dread, and excruciating pain. Trusting in each other’s strength, they allowed the other to hold the double pain—the Son’s and the Mother’s.
Perhaps we have experienced holding the gaze of others along the via crucis of mutual suffering. Through the power of Christ’s death and resurrection we can imitate Mary’s love and love with Christ’s love. Human love and divine love are one in our union with Christ through whom “all things came into being” (Jn. 1:3). We may even “find [my] joy in the suffering I endure for you” (Colossians 1:24). Let us be the eyes of Jesus and Mary.
One Response
As I am making my way through Season 5 of THE CHOSEN, your reflection is more poignant. I wonder how this is going to be portrayed in Season 6 since in Season 5 Jesus wants His mother out of Jerusalem. In Season 5 Jesus is already experiencing “utter abandonment, dread, and … pain.”