Throughout Jesus' earthly life, His Mother, Holy Mary, fulfilled the divine will of caring for Him with loving solicitude: in Bethlehem, in Egypt, in Nazareth. She provided Him with all the normal care He needed, just like any other child, as well as the extraordinary concerns that were necessary to protect His life. The Child grew up between Mary and Joseph in an environment filled with sacrificial and joyful love, firm protection, and work.
Later, during His public life, Mary rarely followed Him closely in a physical sense, but She knew at every moment where He was, and the echoes of His miracles and preaching reached Her. Sometimes Jesus went to Nazareth, spending more time with His Mother; most of His disciples already knew Her since that wedding in Cana of Galilee. Except for the miracle of changing water into wine, in which She played such an important part, the Evangelists do not note Her presence at any other miracle. Nor was She present during the moments when the crowds overflowed with enthusiasm for Her Son. "You will not see her among the palms of Jerusalem, nor—outside the firstfruits of Cana—at the hour of the great miracles.
"But she does not flee from the contempt of Golgotha: there she stands, 'juxta crucem Jesu'—near the cross of Jesus, his Mother." She was normally in Nazareth, in perfect union with Her Son, pondering in Her heart everything that was happening; but in the hour of sorrow and abandonment, Mary is there.
God loved Her in a singular and unique way. However, He did not exempt Her from the trial of Calvary, making Her participate in the sorrow like no one else—except Her Son—has ever suffered. She could perhaps have retired to the privacy of Her home, far from Calvary, in the gentle company of the women; "after all, she could do nothing, and her presence neither prevented nor alleviated the sufferings of her Son, nor his humiliation. And she did not do so for the same reason that a mother remains by the bedside of her dying child instead of leaving to distract herself, given that she can do nothing to keep him living or stop him from suffering. The Virgin stood in solidarity with her Son; her love led her to suffer with Him." Little by little, She approached the Cross; in the end, the soldiers allowed Her to stand very close. She looks at Jesus, and Her Son looks at Her. In a most intimate union, She offers Her Son to God the Father, co-redeeming with Him. In communion with Her suffering and dying Son, She endured sorrow and almost death; "she abdicated her maternal rights over her Son for the salvation of mankind; and to appease divine justice, as far as it depended on Her, she immolated her Son, so that it can rightly be affirmed that she redeemed the human race together with Christ."
The Virgin did not merely "accompany" Jesus, but was actively and intimately united to the sacrifice being offered on that first altar. Voluntarily, She participated in the redemption of humanity, consummating Her fiat, which She had pronounced years before in Nazareth. For this reason, we can think that Mary is present at every Mass, the center and heart of the Church. On many occasions, this reality will help us to better live the Eucharistic sacrifice—uniting our own offering, which must also be a holocaust, to Christ's self-giving—feeling ourselves on Calvary, very close to Our Lady.
HCD