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Dio LansingREAD: DAY THREE | THE SEVEN LAST WORDS OF CHRIST FROM THE CROSS w/ BISHOP BOYEA: Today is Monday of Holy Week. We have now embarked upon our mournful, prayerful pilgrimage with Jesus towards Golgotha. En route, Bishop Earl Boyea will lead us in a daily meditation reflecting upon the last seven words of Christ from His Holy Cross. Today: “Woman, behold, your son!…Behold, your mother!” (John 19: 26-27). Bishop Boyea writes:
On the cross, Jesus gives us a great gift: “When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home” (Jn 19:26-27). This brief encounter tells us a great deal about Jesus drawing all, and especially us, to himself.
First of all, notice that Jesus sees them, sees his mother and the beloved disciple. Our being drawn to Christ, is always a result of Jesus seeing us, noticing us. And then he calls both Mary and the disciple to look at one another, to behold the other. Being drawn to Jesus on the cross means that we are to become very aware of one another. As John will say in his great letter on love, How can we claim to love the God we cannot see if we do not love the neighbor we do see. In the midst of gazing upon the Son of God upon his cross, he would redirect our gaze and turn in awe to our neighbor.
Secondly, we must note that this is no ordinary neighbor, or to put it another way, something even deeper is intended here. Mary’s name is not given here. Here, just before Jesus cries out that all is finished, the Lord establishes a new relationship between HIS mother and HIS beloved disciple. This is not just taking care of loose ends, but rather completing a most important work. Thus, we need to see these two figures somewhat symbolically. They show us that we are mutually entrusted to each other. What is really being established is a spiritual relationship, one that is only possible because of Christ.
Thus, the movement from gazing upon the cross to beholding one another is only possible because Jesus sees them both. Jesus has created a new order, one of the Spirit. I have often told my own siblings that my relationship with them because of baptism is much stronger and greater than my relationship with them due to blood. It is only blood; it is only the flesh. Jesus is clear that our real relationship must be one of the Spirit, one gained by being drawn to the cross.
Thirdly, this is reaffirmed by what the beloved disciple then does. He takes her to his own home. What is the true home of this disciple? It is not a matter of bricks and mortar or wood or straw. His home is the very heart of Christ, that pierced heart. It is, in fact, a continuation of the cross. The mother and the disciple are at home together in the Lord. He becomes their home. And it is to that home which we are all drawn as we honor the cross of Christ. This is why Mary is seen so easily to be an image for the Church, that home, that body of Christ wherein true discipleship can be found. By means of the cross, Jesus sets up a new family, one in which Mary continues her motherly role.
My sisters and brothers, this Holy Week we are drawn to the Cross of Christ. This is as Christ intended. He was lifted up on it and he wishes to draw us to himself. As we approach this cross, let us acknowledge that he is our king; let us see that he has fulfilled the prophecies and thus is the promise fulfilled for us; let us celebrate in his new home, his body, his Church, which he set up for us and in which we will find his mother and all his beloved disciples.
