More on Mary and John

In an earlier post I wrote about the dynamic that explains the structure of the book, All Things Made New, which is the relationship between Mary and John at the foot of the Cross. Another aspect of this relationship is brought out in the meditation found in Magnificat for 4 February 2012, by Fr Marie-Dominique Philippe OP, where he says:

"Mary’s mediation implies that we rest in her as the place God has given to us to enable us to contemplate, to go to the end in love. To recognise Mary’s mediation practically and divinely is to rest in her in our contemplation. It is to rest in her heart, a heart transformed by the fullness of charity, to rest in her wounded heart, in the seven wounds of her heart. If we do not rest in Mary’s heart, we only live by her moral mediation, by her mediation as advocate, we do not live by the proper mystery of Mary’s mediation, which is that of the Cross, where, in unity with Jesus, she communicates grace to John – grace in superabundance – as instrument of the Holy Spirit for him."

We think about the importance of his Mother's presence at the foot of the Cross for Jesus himself, but not so often about the importance of Mary's presence for John. She accompanied him there, and he accompanied her – both no doubt being a comfort to the other, and both witnessing the "hour of glory", not alone but together. Afterwards John made a "place" for her in his home, but she had already become the "place" for him to rest in contemplation of the Saviour, just as she had offered her maternal arms to embrace every Christian disciple – the new "mother of all that live", the new Eve, by virtue of the Holy Spirit dwelling within her.

Illustration: Deisis – Mary, Jesus, John, by Sr Petra Clare