Of the Death of Jesus
by Saint Alphonsus Liguori
We have now to witness a new kind of martyrdom
- a Mother
condemned
to see an innocent Son, and
One Whom she
loves with the whole affection of her soul,
cruelly tormented and
put
to death before her
own eyes: "There stood by the Cross of Jesus His Mother."
Saint John believed that in these words he had said
enough of Mary's martyrdom.
Consider her at the foot of the cross in the presence of her
dying Son,
and then see if there be sorrow like unto her sorrow.
Let us remain for a while this day on Calvary,
and consider the fifth sword which, in the death of Jesus,
transfixed the heart
of Mary.
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Raising of the Cross (detail)
-
by RUBENS, Pieter Pauwel -
from O.-L. Vrouwekathedraal, Antwerp |
As soon as our agonized Redeemer had reached the Mount
of Calvary, the executioners
stripped
Him of His
clothes, and piercing His
hands and feet "not with
sharp but with blunt nails," as Saint Bernard says, to torment Him
more, they fastened Him
on the Cross. Having
crucified
Him, they
planted
the Cross, and thus
left
Him
to die.
The executioners
left Him; but not so Mary.
She then drew nearer to the
Cross, to be present at His
death: "I did
not leave Him" (thus the Blessed Virgin
revealed to Saint Bridget), "but stood nearer to the Cross." "But what did it avail thee, O Lady," says Saint
Bonaventure, "to go to Calvary, and see this Son
expire? Shame should have prevented thee; for His disgrace was thine, since thou wert His
Mother. At least, horror of witnessing such a crime as the crucifixion of a God by His own
creatures, should have prevented thee from going there." But the same Saint
answers, "Ah, thy heart did not then think of its own
sorrows, but of the sufferings and death of thy dear Son," and therefore thou wouldst thyself
be present, at least to
compassionate Him.
"Ah, true Mother," says the Abbot William,
"most loving Mother, whom not even the fear of death could
separate from thy beloved Son."
But, O God,
what a cruel sight was it there to behold
this Son in agony
on the Cross, and at its
foot this Mother in agony,
suffering all the torments
endured by her Son!
Listen to the words in which Mary revealed
to Saint Bridget the sorrowful
state in which she saw her
dying Son
on the Cross: "My
dear Jesus was breathless, exhausted, and in His last agony on the Cross; His eyes were
sunk, half-closed, and lifeless; His lips hanging, and His mouth open; His cheeks hollow
and drawn in; His face elongated; His nose sharp; His countenance sad: His head had fallen
on His breast, His hair was black with blood, His stomach collapsed, His arms and legs
stiff, and His whole body covered with wounds and blood."
 All these sufferings of Jesus
were also those of Mary: "Every torture inflicted on the body of Jesus," says Saint
Jerome, "was a wound in the heart of the Mother."
"Whoever then was present on the Mount of Calvary,"
says Saint John Chrysostom, "might see two
altars, on which two great sacrifices were consummated; the one in the body of Jesus, the
other in the heart of Mary." Nay, better still may we say with Saint
Bonaventure, "there was but one altar - that of
the cross of the Son, on which, together with this Divine Lamb, the victim, the Mother was
also sacrificed;" therefore the Saint asks this Mother, "O Lady,
where art thou? Near the Cross? Nay, rather, thou art on the Cross, crucified, sacrificing
thyself with thy Son." Saint Augustine assures us of the
same thing: "The Cross and nails of the Son were also those
of His Mother; with Christ crucified the Mother was also crucified." Yes;
for, as Saint Bernard says, "Love
inflicted on the heart of Mary the tortures caused by the nails in the body of Jesus."
So much so that, as Saint Bernardine writes, "At
the same time that the Son sacrificed His body, the Mother sacrificed her soul."
Mothers ordinarily fly from the presence of their
dying
children; but when a mother is obliged to witness such a scene, she procures all possible
relief for her child; she arranges his bed, that he may be more at ease; she administers
refreshments to him; and thus the poor mother soothes her own grief.
Ah, most afflicted of all Mothers! O Mary,
thou hast
to witness
the agony of the
dying
Jesus; but thou
canst administer Him no
relief. Mary heard her Son
exclaim, "I thirst,"
but she could not even give Him a drop of water
to refresh
Him in that great
thirst. She could only say,
as Saint Vincent Ferrer remarks, "My Son,
I have only the water of tears." She
saw that on that bed of torture her Son,
suspended by three nails, could
find no repose; she
would have clasped Him
in her
arms
to
give Him
relief,
or that at least He might there have expired; but she
could not.
"In vain," says Saint
Bernard, "did she extend her arms; they sank back
empty on her breast."  She
beheld
that poor Son,
Who in His
sea of grief
sought
consolation, as it was foretold by the prophet, but in
vain: "I have trodden the winepress alone;
I looked about, and there was none to help; I sought, and there was none to give aid."
But who amongst men would console Him, since
all were enemies? Even on the
Cross He
was taunted and blasphemed on all sides: "and they that passed by, blasphemed Him, wagging their heads."
Some said in His face,
"If thou be the Son of God, come down from the Cross."
Others, "He saved others, Himself He cannot save."
Again, "If He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down
from the Cross." Our Blessed Lady herself said
to Saint Bridget, "I heard some say that
my Son was a thief; others, that He was an impostor; others, that no one deserved death
more than He did; and every word was a new sword of grief to my heart."
But that which most increased the sorrows
which Mary
endured
through compassion for her Son, was hearing Him
complain on the
Cross
that even His Eternal Father had
abandoned
Him: "My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Words which the Divine
Mother told the same Saint Bridget, could never, during her whole life, depart from her
mind. So that the afflicted
Mother saw her
Jesus
suffering
on every side; she
desired to
comfort Him, but could not.
And that which grieved her the most was to see that she
herself, by her presence
and sorrow,
increased
the sufferings of her Son.
"The grief," says Saint Bernard,
"which filled Mary's heart, as a torrent flowed into and
embittered the heart of Jesus." "So much
so," says the same Saint, "that
Jesus on the Cross suffered more from compassion for His Mother than from His own
torments." He thus speaks in the name of our Blessed Lady: "I
stood with my eyes fixed on Him, and His on me, and He grieved more for me than for
Himself." And then, speaking of Mary
beside her
dying
Son,
he
says,
"that she lived dying without being able to die."
"Near the Cross of Christ His Mother stood half-dead; she
spoke not; dying she lived, and living she died; nor could she die, for death was her very
life." Passino writes that
Jesus Christ Himself one day, speaking to blessed Baptista Varani
of Camerino, assured her that when on the
Cross,
so great was His affliction
at seeing His Mother
at His feet in such bitter anguish, that
compassion
for her
caused
Him
to die
without consolation; so much so, that the blessed Baptista, being supernaturally enlightened as to the greatness of
this suffering of Jesus,
exclaimed, "O Lord, tell me no
more of this Thy sorrow, for I can no longer bear it."
"All," says Simon of Cassia,
"who then saw this Mother silent, and not uttering a
complaint in the midst of such great suffering, were filled with astonishment."
But if Mary's lips were silent, her heart
was not so, for she
incessantly
offered the life of her Son to the Divine
Justice for our salvation.
Therefore we know that by the merits of her dolors
she
cooperated in
our birth to the life of grace; and hence
we are the children of her sorrows.
"Christ," says Lanspergius,
"was pleased that she, the cooperatress in our
redemption, and whom He had determined to give us for our Mother, should be there
present; for it was at the foot of the cross that she was to bring us, her children,
forth." If any consolation entered that sea
of bitterness, the heart of Mary, the only one was this, that she knew that by her
sorrows she
was leading us to eternal salvation, as Jesus Himself revealed to
 Saint Bridget: "My Mother Mary, on account of her compassion and love, was made the
Mother of all in heaven and on earth." And indeed these were the last
words with which Jesus bid her farewell before His
death: this was His
last recommendation, leaving us to her for her children in the person of Saint John:
"Woman, behold thy son." From that time Mary began to perform
this good office of a Mother
for us; for Saint Peter Damian
attests, "that by the prayers of Mary, who stood between the Cross of the good
thief and that of her Son, the thief was converted and saved,
and thereby she repaid a former service." For, as other authors also
relate, this thief
(Dismas)
had been kind to Jesus and Mary
on their journey to Egypt; and this same
office the Blessed Virgin has ever continued, and still
continues, to perform.
Example
A young man in Perugia promised the devil,
that if he would enable him to attain a sinful object he had in view, he would give him his soul;
and he gave him a written contract to this
effect, signed in his own blood. When the crime
had been committed, the devil demanded the
performance of the promise; and for this purpose led him to the brink of a well, at the
same time threatening, that if he did not throw himself in, he
would drag him, body and soul, to hell.
The wretched youth, thinking that it would be impossible to escape from his hands, got on the little parapet to cast
himself in; but terrified at the idea of death,
he told the devil that he had not courage to
take the leap, but that if he was determined
on his death,
he must push him in. The young
man wore a scapular of the Dolors
of Mary; the devil
therefore said, "Take off that scapular, and then I will
push thee in." But the youth, discovering in the scapular
the protection still vouchsafed to him by the Divine Mother,
refused to do so, and at length, after much altercation, the devil,
filled with confusion, departed; and the sinner,
grateful to the sorrowful Mother, went to thank her,
and, penitent for his sins,
presented as a votive offering to her altar,
in the church of Santa Maria la Nuova in Perugia, a
picture of what had taken place.
Prayer
Ah, Mother the most sorrowful of all mothers, thy
Son is, then, dead;
that Son so amiable, and Who loved thee so much!
Weep, then, for thou hast reason to weep.
Who can ever console thee?
The thought alone, that Jesus by His death conquered hell,
opened heaven until then closed to men,
and gained so many souls, can console thee.
From that throne of the cross He will reign in so
many hearts,
which, conquered by His love, will serve Him with love.
Disdain not, in the meantime, O my Mother, to keep me near thee, to weep with thee,
since I have so much reason to weep for the crimes by which I have offended Him.
Ah, Mother of Mercy, I hope, first, through the death of my Redeemer,
and then through thy sorrows, to obtain pardon and eternal salvation.
Amen
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