THE THIRD WORD
The third message of Our Lord from the Cross contained exactly the same word that was used in addressing His mother at the marriage feast of Cana: When she, for the sake of the embarrassed host, made the simple prayer that the guests had no wine, He answered: "Woman, what is that to Me when My Hour is not yet come?" Our Lord always used the word "Hour" in relation to His Passion and His death.
In our own language, Our Lord was saying to His Blessed Mother at Cana : "My dear mother, do you realize that you are asking Me to proclaim My Divinity-to appear before the world as the Son of God, and to prove My Divinity by My works and My miracles? The moment that I do this, I begin the royal road to the Cross. When I am no longer known among men as the son of the carpenter, but as the Son of God, that will be My first step toward Calvary. My Hour is not yet come; but would you have Me anticipate it? Is it your will that I go to the Cross? If I do, your relationship to Me changes.
You are now My mother. You are known everywhere in our little village as the mother of Jesus. But if I appear now as the Savior of men, and begin the work of Redemption, your role will change too. Once I undertake the salvation of mankind, you will not only be My mother, but you will also be the mother of everyone whom I redeem. I am the Head of humanity; as soon as I save the body of humanity, you who are the mother of the Head will become also the mother of My Mystical Body or the Church. You will then be the universal mother, the new Eve, as I am the new Adam.
To indicate the role that you will play in Redemption, I now bestow upon you that title of universal motherhood; I call you ‘woman’. It was to you that I referred when I said to Satan that I would put enmity between him and the woman, between his brood of evil and your seed, Which I am. That great title of woman I dignify with now. And I shall dignify you with it again when My Hour comes and when I am unfurled upon the Cross like a wounded eagle.
We are in this work of Redemption together. What is yours is Mine. From this Hour on, we are not just Mary and Jesus, we are the new Adam and the new Eve, beginning a new humanity, changing the water of sin into the wine of life. Knowing all this, My dear mother, is it your will that I anticipate the Cross and that I go to Calvary ?"
Our Blessed Lord was presenting to Mary not merely the choice of asking for a miracle or not rather He was asking if she would send Him to His death. He had made it quite plain that the world would not tolerate His Divinity, that if He turned water into wine, some day wine would be changed into blood.
Three years had passed. Our Blessed Lord now looked down from His Cross to the two most beloved creatures that He had on earth: John and His Blessed Mother. He picked up the refrain of Cana , and addressed Our Blessed Mother with the same title He gave Her at the marriage feast. He called her, "Woman." It was the second Annunciation.
With a gesture of His dust-filled eyes and His thorn crowned head, He looked longingly at Her, who had sent Him willingly to the Cross and who is now standing beneath it as a cooperator in His Redemption; and He said: "Woman, this is thy son." He did not him John; to do that would have been to address him as the son of Zebedee and no one else. But, in his anonymity, John stood for all mankind. To His beloved disciple He said: "This is thy mother."
Here is the answer, after all these years, to the mysterious words in the Gospel of the Incarnation which stated that Our Blessed Mother laid her "firstborn" in the manger. Did that mean that Our Blessed Mother was to have other children? It certainly did, but not according to the flesh. Our Divine Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was the unique Son of Our Blessed Mother by the flesh. But Our Lady was to have other children, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
The mystery came to an end on Calvary . There she became our mother the moment she lost her Divine Son. What seemed an alienation of affection was in reality a deepening of affection. No love ever mounts to a higher level without death to a lower one. Mary died to the love of Jesus at Cana, and recovered Jesus again at Calvary with His Mystical Body which He redeemed. It was, for the moment, a poor exchange, giving up her Divine Son to win mankind, but in reality, she did not win mankind apart from Him. On that day when she came to Him preaching, He began to merge the Divine maternity into the new motherhood of all men; at Calvary He caused her to love men as He loved them. It was a new love, or perhaps the same love expanded over the wider area of humanity. But it was not without its sorrow.
It cost Mary something to have men as sons. She could give birth to Jesus in joy in a stable, but she could give birth to Christians only on Calvary, in labors great enough to make Her Queen of Martyrs. The Fiat she pronounced when she became the Mother of God now became another Fiat, like unto Creation in the immensity of what she brought forth. It was also a Fiat which so enlarged her affections as to increase her pains. The bitterness of Eve's curse-that woman would bring forth children in sorrow-was now fulfilled, and not by the opening of a womb but by the piercing of a heart, as Simeon had foretold.
It was the greatest of all honors to be the mother of Christ but it was also a great honor to be the mother of Christians. There was no room in the inn for that first birth; but Mary had the whole world for the second. Recall that when Our Lord spoke to John, He did not refer to him as John for then he would have been only the son of Zebedee. Rather, in him all humanity was commended to Mary, who became the mother of all men, not by metaphor, or figure of speech, but pangs of birth. Nor was it a mere sentimental solicitude that made Lord give John to His mother, for John's mother was present at Cross. He needed no mother from a human point of view. The import of the words were spiritual and became fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when Christ's Mystical Body became visible and operative. Mary as the mother of redeemed and regenerated humanity was in the midst of the Apostles.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Life of Christ)
