Consider that great violence was done to the Immaculate Heart of Mary when she could not take the place of her Son in the midst of His Passion to relieve Him of suffering. Mary, so full of grace, overflowing with love, would have traded places with her Son to experience the physical sufferings also. On the Via Dolorosa she remembered the words she said thirty-three years before His Passion, at the invitation of the Angel Gabriel, “Let it be done to me according to your word”. Her yes is utterly complete in obedience of faith; nothing was held back or reserved for herself. Her yes is complete agreement to serve, as her Son came to serve, not to be served. Her yes was complete in the midst of the Passion of her Son.
What then, did the heart of the Mother not experience of her Son’s suffering and death? Would she not be dying with Him in the depths of her heart? Would her soul not be wrought with unspeakable torment by the observance of her Son’s suffering? What restraint the Mother had to keep silent when she wanted to cry out in pain! What dignity the Lady had to stand valiant when she wanted to faint! What love Mary had to agree to the annihilation of bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh! The incorporation of the Immaculate and Sacred hearts is a bond of charity that binds the Mother and the Son who love one another as no other love can duplicate.
Christ’s experience of the crucifixion is His singular, complete act of love and obedience to the Father for the redemption of humanity. The Mother’s mystical crucifixion was uniquely her act of love united with the Son, not for the redemption of mankind, but for co-redemption, as an act of service to the Son who is her Redeemer.
The DNA of the Incarnate Word imprints her womb just as the DNA of any child remains imprinted on the mother’s womb. But Mary’s Child was not an ordinary Child; her Child is the Eternal High Priest sent by the Father to be the Perfect Sacrifice for the redemption of the world. The movements in the heart of the Eternal High Priest resonated within her maternal heart. Great violence was done to her heart that she was exempt from undergoing the physical suffering of her Son. This is the meaning of the seven swords piercing Mary’s heart: complete sorrow! With all the human powers of her mind, will, and heart directed to her Son in His Passion, she experienced the mystical crucifixion of an altogether ineffable Love. The Father willed to unite the Mother and the Son in the fullness of joy and sorrow to bring forth the fecundity of the Gift of God.
What does the union of the Mother with the Son mean for the priest?
Mary models for you the incorporation of your soul with the soul of the Eternal High Priest. Mary’s heart goes out to you because she sees your soul’s singular election marked with the indelible print of the Eternal High Priest by the laying on of hands in the sacrament of Holy Orders. Mary cannot cease to hold back from entering into your priesthood. She who was mystically crucified with Jesus is mystically united to the priest by an act of God’s will to which she is completely surrendered.
What purpose—this maternal solicitude for priests?
Mary knows the priest needs a mother in the worst way—just as Jesus needed His Mother to fulfill His mission. The Son became dependent upon the Mother’s yes at the Incarnation, and the Mother was dependent upon the Son for her redemption. The Mother and the Son depended upon one another. What she did for Jesus on earth she does for the priests who continue the unbroken lineage of the Eternal High Priest. She raises you up! She loves, encourages, protects, feeds, sings, embraces, cleans, delights, teaches, and keeps you company. She who did not leave her Son at the foot of the Cross is spiritually at the right hand of the priest with fullness of grace for your unique mission. Mary saw the truth of the crucifixion—God’s victory over sin and death. Mary knows how to lead the priest to victory by the means of the Cross.
Love compelled the Mother to enter into the Perfect Sacrifice of the Son so she could enter into the mystical crucifixion of each priest who is chosen to live Christ. Mary, the Mother assists the priest in the refinement of his will, in the purification of his heart, in conformity of his mind to God. Mary aids the priest to live chastely, in kingly virtue, with fortitude for martyrdom of love through the resiliency of charity, and the brilliance of wisdom. She who experienced the mystical Crucifixion of Jesus will help each priest to do the same for the joy of the kingdom of God. With Mary, the priest’s joy is complete just as Christ’s joy is complete in Mary.
Why does the priest need the love of the Mother?
The priest needs the love of Mary’s feminine heart to bring him to the fulfillment of the masculine ideal to protect humanity from all that is harmful. Jesus, the New Adam, is the redeemer and protector of the human family. The priest, like Jesus, the New Adam, is the protector of all that belongs to Christ: men, women and children, the heavens and earth. The priest is at his best, when, with Christ, he guards the dignity and vocation of every man, woman and child. And Mary is God’s guardian of the priest’s dignity and vocation, the Mother gently moving him to be all that he can be.
In this hour when death threatens men, women and children, every nation on earth, the Mother pours her heart out to priests. She beckons you to live fully the life, death and resurrection of her Son, the Eternal High Priest, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Through the maternal mediation of Mary the priest becomes the sacrifice that offers the Perfect Sacrifice; the priest becomes the love that offers Love.
Mary, mystically crucified with Jesus, help your priest sons to live Christ, and to protect all that belongs to Him while experiencing the fulfillment of their desire in Him. Amen.
