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| Mother of Sorrows, Bartolome Esteban Murillo |
God the Father, rich in mercy, has given his earthly
children an Immaculate Mother: the Mother of Jesus. As we heard in the Gospel,
high on the Cross, the supreme seat of love and sacrifice, Jesus speaks to his
Mother and to the disciple. To his Mother he said: “Woman, behold, your son!”
He then said to the disciple: “Behold, your Mother!” (cf. Jn 19:25-27). Looking
at Our Lady of Sorrows, who dominates the apse of this church, we can better
understand that Mary's new motherhood in the order of grace is the fruit of the
love, which achieved its full growth at the foot of the cross, through her
participation in the Son’s redeeming love. In this way Mary acquired a new
title on Calvary, which is why she is and can be called the spiritual Mother of
her Son’s brothers and sisters.
Jesus entrusts us to Mary as our Mother, and Mary receives
us all as her children! This is Christ's testament on the Cross. On the one
hand, he entrusts the Church to the care of his own Mother; on the other, he
entrusts his Mother to the care of the Church. The scene on Calvary reveals to
us the secret of true Marian piety, which is a filial love of surrender and
gratitude to Mary, a love of imitation and of consecration to her person.
-St. John Paul II, Argentine National Church of “Our Lady of Sorrows” in Rome, 1998
