💖 Devotion to Our Lady on Saturday is an ancient tradition in the Church, honoring the Virgin Mary who, according to piety, remained firm in faith during Holy Saturday while the apostles doubted. This day is dedicated to meditating on her virtues, her "fiat," and her unique cooperation in the work of Redemption, especially her unwavering faithfulness at the foot of the Cross, making her a safe refuge and a model of hope for all the faithful.
👑 Introit (- |Ps 44:2)Salve, sancta Parens, eníxa puérpera Regem... Hail, holy Mother, who didst bring forth the King who rules heaven and earth for ever and ever. Ps. My heart hath uttered a good word: I speak my works to the King.
📜 Reading (Sirach 24:14-16)
From the beginning, and before the world, was I created, and unto the world to come I shall not cease to be, and in the holy dwelling place I have ministered before him. And so was I established in Sion, and in the holy city likewise I rested, and my power was in Jerusalem. And I took root in an honourable people, and in the portion of my God his inheritance, and my abode is in the full assembly of saints.
✝️ Gospel (John 19:25-27)
At that time, there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother and his mother's sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen. When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own.
🤔 Reflections
By saying "Woman," and not "Mother," Jesus was indicating the hour when, according to prophecy, womanhood would become the source of a new life, not only of the flesh but of the spirit, fulfilling the promise made to the first woman. (St. Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John, 119). Wisdom has built herself a house (Prov. 9:1), which is Mary; for in her, as in the most sacred temple, the Word dwelt, and in her He established His power in Jerusalem, that is, in the vision of peace that He brought to the world at the foot of the Cross. (St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon on the Aqueduct). From that hour, the disciple took her not as a burden, but as a treasure; he received her into his own possessions, that is, into his spiritual gifts, recognizing in her the inheritance that the Lord entrusted to him from the cross. (St. Bede the Venerable, Homilies on the Gospels, 1.4).
🔄 While the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 27:55-56; Mark 15:40-41; Luke 23:49) mention the presence of several women "from a distance," observing the crucifixion, only the Gospel of John places the Mother of Jesus "by the cross." Furthermore, John is the only one to record Christ's testamentary dialogue, in which He entrusts His Mother to the beloved disciple and the disciple to His Mother, establishing Mary's spiritual motherhood over the Church in a way that the other evangelists do not detail.
✉️ St. Paul, though not narrating the scene of the crucifixion, provides a theological foundation that illuminates it. In Galatians 4:4, he states that God sent his Son "born of a woman," highlighting Mary's essential human cooperation in the divine plan that culminates at the Cross. Her sorrow, lived in union with her Son, echoes the Pauline principle of "filling up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is the church" (Colossians 1:24), implicitly revealing her co-redemptive participation.
⚜️ Pontifical documents delve deeper into the spiritual motherhood conferred on Calvary. The Bull Ineffabilis Deus (Pius IX) uses the passage from Sirach ("from the beginning... was I created") to ground Mary's predestination to be the Mother of God, a preparation for her "yes" at the foot of the Cross. The encyclical Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum (St. Pius X) develops this moment by stating that, through her union with Christ's sufferings, she "merited to become the restorer of the lost world, in a congruous sense," thus becoming our mother not just by an affective title, but as a co-operator in the very work of redemption.
🧐 See English articles here.