AWARE THAT EVERYTHING WAS NOW FINISHED

Is 52,13-53,12; Ps 30; Heb 4,14-16; 5,7-9; Jn 19,16-30
30 MARCH
We know that everything in Jesus is the fulfilment of the Word of the Father, both of the Word contained in the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, and of that Word or command that the Father, in perfect communion of wisdom, intelligence and knowledge, gave his Son moment by moment. With absolute certainty of faith, we must affirm that Christ the Lord has done nothing starting from his heart, but everything always starting from the heart of the Father, for a pure, immediate, obedience, without ever omitting anything. Before delivering his spirit, Jesus manifests the conscience that up to this moment everything had been accomplished by Him. Reading then: “His mother, the sister of his mother, Mary mother of Cleopas and Mary of Magdala stood near the cross of Jesus. Then, Jesus, seeing his mother and next to her the disciple whom he loved, said to his mother: “Woman, behold your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that moment the disciple welcomed her with him”, we must necessarily conclude that the gift of the Mother to the disciple and of the disciple to the Mother is the most pure will of the Father, to whom Jesus gives fulfilment. This gift is not a “Christological” fact, that is, concerning the Person or the will of Jesus, his Mother and the disciple. On the contrary, it is a very high “theological” fact. If it is “theological”, it is part of faith in God and today and tomorrow all those who refer to the God of Abraham, as they are obliged to believe in Christ Jesus as a gift of salvation and redemption, so they are also obliged to take Mary as their true Mother. It is a necessity of faith and not of devotion. If it were a need for devotion, one could even do without it. The thing could seem or be seen as something extra. Instead it is not an extra, it is the true path of faith, as faith in Christ is the true path of faith. Mary is a true gift of the Father.

So they took Jesus, and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.” Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews.'” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier. They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down. So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be,” in order that the passage of scripture might be fulfilled (that says): “They divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots.” This is what the soldiers did. Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.” There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.

The gift of the Mother to the disciple and of the disciple to the Mother, is not even an “ecclesiological” event, in the sense that it was the Church the one that propagandize, spread and inculcated faith in this relationship of Mother and Son. The Church does not have the power to create ways of faith that do not come from the heart of the Father. As Christ is from the heart of the Father, the gift of Mary is from the heart of the Father, the gift of the Church is from the heart of the Father. If the disciple does not take Mary into his home, he will never fulfil the Word of God. An essential way to live his faith is missing to his life. Christ is essential. The Spirit is essential. The Church is essential. The Word is essential. The grace of the sacraments is essential. Mary is essential. There is a difference between essence and devotion. It is the essence that must always be transformed into love. The Mother is a gift from God.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us live of true essence.