IV. Jesus meets His Holy Mother

The day has come for the Blessed Virgin, whereon Simeon’s prophecy is to be fully realised in her: “ Thy own soul a sword shall pierce.” In the same way that she was united to Jesus when offering Him, in years gone by, in the Temple, so now in this hour when Jesus is about to consummate His sacrifice she wills more than ever to enter into His dispositions and share His sufferings. She sets out towards Calvary, where she knows that her Son is to be crucified. _ Upon the way she meets Him. What immense sorrow to see Him in this terrible state! Her gaze meets His and the abyss of the sufferings of Jesus calls upon the abyss of His Mother’s compassion. What is there that she would not do for Him!

This meeting was at once a source of sorrow and a principle of joy for Jesus; of sorrow, in seeing the deep desolation in which His sorrowful state plunged His Mother’s soul; of joy, in the thought that His sufferings were to pay the price for all the privileges which she had already received, and those yet to be lavished upon her.

Let us ask the Blessed Virgin to associate us with her in the contemplation of the sufferings of Jesus, and to make us share in her compassion towards Him, that therein we may draw the hatred of sin which required such an expiation. It has at times pleased God to manifest sensibly the fruit that the contemplation of the Passion produces, by imprinting on the bodies of some Saints, like St Francis of Assisi, the stigmata of the wounds of Jesus. We ought not to wish for these outward marks; but we ought to ask that the image of the suffering Christ may be imprinted upon our hearts. Let us beg this precious grace from the Blessed Virgin: Sancta mater istud agas, crucifixt fige plagas cord meo valide.

O Mother, behold your Son; by the love that we bear towards Him, obtain for us that the remembrance of His sufferings may everywhere follow us; it is in His name that we ask this of you; to refuse it to us would be to refuse it to Himself, since we are His members. O Christ Jesus, behold Your Mother; for her sake, grant that we may compassionate Your sorrows so that we may become like unto You!