At the moment of the Incarnation, when the Son of God becomes the Son of man in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit overshadows her. She is espoused to the Holy Spirit, forming a bond that is eternal. She conceives in her womb the Redeemer of Man, who is “the centre of the universe and of history” as Pope St John Paul the Great wrote in the first sentence of his first encyclical ‘Redemptor Hominis’. This is the great mystery from which all others flow. The Son of Man who is the Light of the World is conceived by an ‘overshadowing’. Now today there is another overshadowing. St Luke tells us that when Jesus was crucified, at the sixth hour, “there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed.” Natural light fails.
But there is a new Light appearing, a new creation. The birth of the Church begins at the Last Supper, but as Joseph Ratzinger – Pope Benedict – explained the origin of the Church occurs is such a way that Jesus’ words at the Last Supper, His death on the Cross, and His resurrection form an indivisible trinity, which gives an inkling of the mystery of the triune God.” And in this unity, right at the centre, is the moment when blood and water flowed from the side of Christ pierced by the centurion’s lance. This is the moment of the greatest suffering for Our Redeemer. It is the moment of the greatest suffering for Mary as she stood beneath the cross of her crucified Son.
The Church is born in suffering. The Church is the Body of Christ. Mary is the Mother of this Body. This is alluded to in the St John’s writing of the 12th chapter of the Book of Revelation – the woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of 12 stars – she “cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery”. Mary was sinless and so did not suffer the pain in giving birth to Jesus. But there is a profound unity between Mary and the Church, the Body of Christ, which was born from suffering. I use the analogy of the holograph – when you look at it from one angle you see the Church, from another you see Mary, but the holograph is one. And so when Jesus speaks to Mary his last words to her on earth, “Woman, behold your Son” and to St John “behold your Mother” He means much more than simply take Mary and look after her from now on. He means take her into your very heart for she really is your Mother much more so than your own natural mother. Why? Because at this moment of intense suffering, more than any mother has ever experienced in child birth, a new communio is being formed, a communio in the Holy Spirit, a communio which is more profound than any natural bond between mother and child, a communio which is the Church. In the person of St John we too enter this communio through our baptism and indeed through our suffering. We are children of Mary and children of God for she is the Mother of God. As St Paul wrote to the Romans: “We are children of God … and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.” Suffering and Love are united at this moment of the crucifixion. It was the Way of Jesus. It was the way of Mary. It is our way too. I try to encapsulate the way of Mary, which we celebrate in a special way today, in the following:
Our Lady trials did meet,
Though in a manner bitter sweet,
For the sword pierced her life severe.
But the soul’s sweet tenderness
Of heart true
Shows out-flowing graces –
Purity, concern, compassion, care sincere.
When tragedy melts, bitter to sweet attained
Like gold tried, the soul sustained
In fire, the prize ultimate will be gained.