“Mother, Behold thy Son.” Meditation by St. Alphonsus

“I behold thee my innocent Mother, enduring also for me so great sufferings; and I see that I, a miserable being, who deserves hell on account of my sins, have not suffered anything for love of thee – I wish to suffer something for thee before I die.”

Jesus, by mouth of the prophet, made lamentation that, when dying on the cross, he went in search of someone to console him, but found none: And I looked for one that would comfort me, and I found none [Ps. 68:21]. The Jews and the Romans, even while he was dying, uttered against him their execrations and blasphemies. The Most Holy Mary – yes she stood beneath the cross, in order to afford him some relief, had it been in her power to do so; but this afflicted and loving Mother, by the sorrow which she suffered through sympathy with his pains, only added to the affliction of this her Son, who loved her so dearly. 

Bartolome Murillo

St. Bernard says that the pains of Mary all went towards increasing the torments of the Heart of Jesus: “The Mother, being filled with it, the ocean of her sorrow poured itself back upon the Son.” So that the Redeemer, in beholding Mary sorrowing thus, felt his soul pierced more by the sorrows of Mary than by his own; as was revealed to St. Bridget by the Blessed Virgin herself: “He, on beholding me, grieved more for me than for himself.” Whence St. Bernard says, “O good Jesus, great as are Thy bodily sufferings, much more dost Thou suffer in Thy Heart through compassion for Thy Mother.”

What pangs, too, must not those loving Hearts of Jesus and Mary have felt when the moment arrived in which the Son, before breathing his last, had to take his leave of the Mother! Behold what the last words were with which Jesus took leave in this world of Mary: “Mother, behold thy son,” assigning to her John, whom, in his own place, he left her for a son. O Queen of Sorrows, things given as memorials by a beloved son at the hour of his death, how very dear they are, and never do they slip away from the memory of a mother! Oh, bear it in mind that thy Son, who loved thee so dearly, has, in the person of John, left me, a sinner, to thee for a son.

Annibale Carracci

For the love which thou didst bear to Jesus, have compassion on me. I ask thee not the good things of earth; I behold thy Son dying in so great pains for me; I behold thee, my innocent Mother, enduring also for me so great sufferings; and I see that I, a miserable being, who deserves hell on account of my sins, have not suffered anything for love of thee – I wish to suffer something for thee before I die. This is the grace that I ask of thee; and with St. Bonaventure, I say to thee, that if I have offended thee, justice requires that I should have suffering as a chastisement; and if I have been serving thee, it is but reasonable that I should have suffering as a reward: “O Lady, if I have offended thee, wound my heart for justice' sake; if I have served thee, I ask thee for wounds as my recompense.”

Obtain for me, O Mary, a great devotion and a continual remembrance of the Passion of thy Son; and, by that pang which thou didst suffer on beholding him breathe his last upon the cross, obtain for me a good death. Come to my assistance, O my Queen, in that last moment; make me die, loving and pronouncing the sacred names of Jesus and Mary. 

View my Catholic books Here.