Jesus Meets His Blessed Mother

V. We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee.

R. Because by Thy holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

Along the crowded, narrow street, amid the jeering crowd and the Roman soldiers, Jesus and his mother Mary come face to face. This meeting is not recorded explicitly in the Gospel accounts of the Passion procession, but the Gospel of John tells us that Mary was present at Calvary (John 19:25), and Christian tradition has always affirmed that she would not have stood passively at a distance while her son made this journey. Their eyes meet — the eyes of the Son of God and the eyes of the woman who bore him, nursed him, raised him.

When Simeon presented the infant Jesus in the Temple, he spoke a prophecy to Mary: "A sword will pierce your own soul" (Luke 2:35). That prophecy reaches its fulfillment on the Via Dolorosa. Mary sees the wounds of the scourging, the crown of thorns, the blood-soaked garments. Yet she does not flee. She remains, standing upright in faith, her heart torn by a mother's grief and sustained by the strength of grace.

Mary's presence on the Way of the Cross is itself a witness to discipleship. She who had said "Let it be done to me according to your word" at the Annunciation now says it again, wordlessly, with her entire being. She is the model for all who must watch helplessly as someone they love suffers. She shows us that to be present — to witness, to love, to refuse to abandon — is itself a form of redemption.