"Woman, this is Your son! Son, this is your Mother!"

From the Cross on high. From out of suffering. From out of the forgetting and betrayal of so many, the incomprehension of so many, the Lord Jesus draws words charged with sweetness and prophetic meaning for his Mother. Woman, this is your son! He says to Mary. It's a word whose echoes ring forth from the threshold of history, when God promised man that Salvation would come.

From the Cross of suffering and hope itself, the Lord illumines the identity of His Mother. Jesus tells Her that She is the Woman, the one upon whom depends the entrance of Salvation into history (cf. Gen.3:15). In this word, the Lord outlines and summarizes the greatness of the mystery of Mary, Her dynamic participatory role in the salvific history of humanity. Her maternity is no isolated fact, Jesus reveals; Her maternity is the cornerstone of the life of the Christian; light that illuminates, warmth that encourages, strength and hope that fortify.

And, completing the message that someone has called the Lord's last testament, Jesus says, in he who is the faithful apostle par excellence, to all his faithful friends: Son, this is your Mother! In talking to all of us in Saint John, the Lord Jesus, from the Cross of Salvation, confirms the mystery of the spiritual maternity of Mary. She, the Mother of God! Our Mother! How beautiful is our older Brother's legacy! There is in this an entire program of life, an entire way for the pilgrim who feels that nostalgia in his heart for the encounter with the Father. Each act, each word of the Lord collected in the Gospel illuminates the path that takes us towards likeness, to the House of the Father.

Mary, our Mother! Out of the Lord's own will, Mary, Mother of all who seek to open themselves to Jesus in a fulfilling encounter which guides all the moments of their stay in the world. Out of the Savior's own designs, He shows us the most adequate way to approach Him: through Mary. Saint Pius X, echoing God's will, used to say: "There is no surer or more direct road than by Mary for uniting all mankind in Christ." And it happens that everything in Mary points to Christ. In loving Mary we come to love the Lord Jesus more fully.

Notice: These articles have been translated by members of the Christian Life Movement and have not been revised by the author.

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