Our Lady of Sorrow, Pt. V
Our Lady of Sorrow, Pt. V
The Meeting on the Way to Calvary
“If all of the sorrows of the world were united, they would not equal that of the Glorious Virgin Mary.” --- St. Bernadine of Siena
The fourth sorrow of the Blessed Virgin Mary is her meeting her beloved Son on the road to Calvary. There is an instance, preserved in the oral tradition of the Church, in which during His carrying of the cross, Our Blessed Lord meets His sorrowful mother. Since this is not something that is found in Scripture, we will rely on the oral tradition of the Church as well as the private revelations to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich. Along these lines, I would also like to give some time to meditate on Mary during the entire passion leading up to His crucifixion. These are likewise preserved in Bl. Anne’s Dolores Passion.1
The Suffering of Mary Prior to the Meeting
“The Blessed Virgin was ever united to her Divine Son by interior spiritual communications; she was, therefore, fully aware of all that happened to Him—she suffered with Him and joined in His continual prayer for His murderers.”2
Prior to their meeting on the way to the cross, Our Lady follows the path of her son throughout the different stops that He made on the way to His death. A few of them are seen in the visions of Bl. Anne and she gives great detail as to the sufferings of Mary in union with her son. I want to mention a couple of them here.
I first want to look at Mary outside of the house of Caiaphas. Scripture tells us that Caiaphas was the high priest during that time.3 He is taken in the dead of the night to a secret trial where false witnesses are brought against Him and He is condemned to death.4 In the time between Christ being condemned by the Chief Priests and when He is taken to Pontius Pilate in the early morning, tradition holds that Christ was kept in a subterranean prison under Caiaphas’ house. This prison was very small, and Bl. Anne tells us that He was chained to a column and made to stand the entire time. According to Bl. Anne, as the Blessed Mother approaches the house of Caiaphas, hoping to see her son, she comes upon workers who are busily making His cross. According to the visions, the chief priests ordered the cross to be made after His trial so that He could more expediently be put to death.
Bl. Anne tells us:
“The Romans had already prepared the crosses of the two thieves, and the workmen who were making that of Jesus were much annoyed at being obliged to labor at it during the night; they did not attempt to conceal their anger at this, and uttered the most frightful oaths and curses, which pierced the heart of the tender Mother of Jesus through and through; but she prayed for these blind creatures who thus unknowingly blasphemed the Savior who was about to die for their salvation, and prepared the cross for his cruel execution.”5
Imagine the great suffering that Our Lady undergoes seeing the instrument of her son’s suffering. While she knows that this is the instrument of the redemption of mankind, she cannot help but have great sorrow knowing the immense suffering that her son will undergo in a few short hours. The sight of that cross must have struck Mary with a deep spiritual wound in her immaculate soul.
Mary now comes to the outside of the house itself and finds herself in front of the door behind which her son is being kept. Bl. Anne reveals to us the heart of the mother who desperately wanted to see her son:
“Mary’s heart was with her Divine Son, and she desired most ardently to see this door opened, that she might again have a chance of beholding him, for she knew that it alone separated her from the prison where he was confined.”6
The immense longing that Mary felt in these moments is greater than any longing of the human heart. She knew where her son was, so close to her physically, but she could not reach Him. She longed to see that door open and for Him to walk about and yet, according to the will of the Father, He remains behind it, separated from her and so her suffering increases.
After Christ is taken before Pilate, he orders Our Lord to be scourged.7 Again, Bl. Anne guides us through the experience of Our Sorrowful Mother during her visions:
“I saw the Blessed Virgin in a continual ecstasy during the time of the scourging of her Divine Son; she saw and suffered with inexpressible love and grief all the torments he was enduring.”8
One thing that is continually emphasized in the Dolores Passion is the compassion, literally, the ‘suffering with,’ that Our Lady does with her beloved Son. During His scourging, Mary unites herself with His suffering and suffers with Him. This is exactly what all are called to do with our sufferings, unite them to Christ in His passion so that He can bring the salvation of souls out of it.9 The visions continue:
“When Jesus fell down at the foot of the pillar, after the flagellation, I saw Claudia Procula, the wife of Pilate, send some large pieces of linen to the Mother of God… At the termination of the scourging, Mary came to herself for a time, and saw her Divine Son all torn and mangled, being led away by the archers after the scourging: he wiped his eyes, which were filled with blood, that he might look at his Mother, and she stretched out her hands towards him, and continued to look at the bloody traces of his footsteps. I soon after saw Mary and Magdalen approach the pillar where Jesus had been scourged…they knelt down on the ground near the pillar and wiped up the sacred blood with the linen which Claudia Procula had sent.”10
The charity of Claudia for Our Lady is immense here. We hear of her only once in the Gospels. She in mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew as having a nightmare about Christ and urging her husband to release Him.11 Bl. Anne wonders aloud in this passage whether Claudia thought Our Lord would be released. Whatever the motive, the use of the cloths comes into focus here as Our Lady lovingly wipes up the Precious Blood from the ground at the base of the pillar. The same blood that was offered in the sacrifice of the Eucharist mere hours before is shed on the ground of the Praetorium as Our Lord is mercilessly scourged for mankind’s sins all the while, His most sorrowful mother watches from afar.
The Way of the Cross
“Weeping, she hath wept in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: there is none to comfort her among all them that were dear to her…” Lamentations 1:2
After Our Lord is condemned to death, no doubt Our Lady was present for the sentence, He is weighed down by the heavy cross and made to carry it to the place of His execution. It is here that we begin the beautiful devotion of the Stations of the Cross,12 visiting each step on the road to the redemption of the world. As the weight of the cross bears down on Him, He walks toward the Place of the Skull, and His mother follows closely behind.
It is at what tradition holds to be the second fall of Our Lord that the meeting with Mary takes place. Bl. Anne describes the event:
“When those who were carrying the instruments for the execution approached, and the Mother of Jesus saw their insolent and triumphant looks, she could not control her feelings, but joined her hands as if to implore the help of heaven; upon which one among them said to his companions: ‘What woman is that who is uttering such lamentations?’ Another answered: ‘She is the Mother of the Galilean.’ When the cruel men heard this, far from being moved to compassion, they began to make game of the grief of this most afflicted Mother: they pointed at her, and one of them took the nails which were to be used for fastening Jesus to the cross, and presented them to her in an insulting manner; but she turned away, fixed her eyes upon Jesus, who was drawing near, and leant against the pillar for support, lest she should again faint from grief, for her cheeks were as pale as death, and her lips almost blue.”13
The malice with which these men assaulted both Our Lord and Our Lady is immeasurable. No compassion, no empathy, no charity is to be found for either of them. The Redeemer and the Co-Redemptrix are both crushed under the iniquity of sin though in different ways. Our Lord is physically assaulted by the crushing violence of the cross while His mother suffers in spirit. Amid such suffering, we can see the authentic discipleship of Mary. She does what we should all do when faced with such a great trial, she fixed her eyes upon Jesus. Even in her darkest torments, she teaches us the way to suffer well.
Bl. Anne goes on:
“The Pharisees on horseback passed by first, followed by the boy who carried the inscription. Then came her beloved Son. He was almost sinking under the heavy weight of his cross, and his head, still crowned with thorns, was drooping in agony on his shoulder. He cast a look of compassion and sorrow upon his Mother, staggered, and fell for the second time upon his hands and knees. Mary was perfectly agonized at this sight; she forgot all else; she saw neither soldiers nor executioners; she saw nothing but her dearly loved Son; and, springing from the doorway into the midst of the group who were insulting and abusing him, she threw herself on her knees by his side and embraced him. The only words I heard were, ‘Beloved Son!’ and ‘Mother!’”14
Imagine the great grief the sight of Our Lord brought to Mary. As He is coming down the street, bloody, broken, crowned with thorns, unrecognizable to even His mother, she goes out to meet Him. St. Alphonsus Ligouri comments to us:
“She looked at Him, and hardly recognized Him… Yes, for the wounds, the bruises, and the clotted blood, gave Him the appearance of a leper… But at length love revealed Him to her, and as soon as she knew that it indeed was He, ah what love and fear must then have filled her heart!”15
Imagine not being able to recognize your child because of how torn His body is! This sight to her must have been indescribable and yet the light of love shines forth and reveals her beloved son. In His fall, under the horrid weight of the cross, Mary runs toward her son as any mother would do when their child fell seeking to comfort His pain and help Him rise again. In a way, Mary assists in His carrying of the cross.
St. Alphonsus continues:
“At length they looked at each other. The Son wiped from His eyes the clotted blood, which, as it was revealed to Saint Bridget, prevented Him from seeing, and looked at His Mother, and the Mother looked at her Son. Ah, the looks of grief, which, as so many arrows, pierced through and through these two beautiful and loving souls.”16
For a brief moment in time, the Mother and the Son are able to bring each other mutual comfort in their sufferings. Each knows intimately what the other is going through, and in a grace-filled exchange, they strengthen each other for the remaining road ahead. In her grief, the Blessed Mother could have died and yet she is strengthened by her son to keep going and suffer yet still for the redemption of the world. Likewise, Christ is sustained in His immense suffering. Broken under the weight of the cross, loss of blood, lack of food and water, and He finds the strength in His mother to rise again and keep walking, knowing that His death is what will reunite God and man.
Towards the Crucifixion
“If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24
After she meets her son, Mary continues toward Calvary. Even though it would have been easier to stay in the city, she continues to the place where her son would ultimately lay down His life. She embodies the perfection of all His disciples as she takes up her own cross and follows Christ to the place of crucifixion. St. Alphonsus tells us:
“But although the sight of her dying Jesus was to cost her such bitter sorrow, the loving Mary will not leave Him: the Son advanced, and the Mother followed, to be also crucified with her Son, as the Abbot William says: ‘the Mother also took up her cross and followed to be crucified with Him.”17
This is what awaits each Christian who elects to come after her Jesus. Mary is the exemplar, the very first to take up her cross and follow after Him. Hers was not a physical crucifixion but a spiritual one as St. John Paul II teaches us:
“Crucified spiritually with her crucified Son (cf. Gal. 2:20), she contemplated with heroic love the death of her God, she ‘lovingly consented to the immolation of this Victim which she herself have brought forth’ (Lumen Gentium, 58).”18
Mary unties herself completely with her crucified son, following Him along every step that He takes along the way of the Passion. Hers is not a passive role as an onlooker racked with grief. Hers is a co-suffering with her son for the redemption of the world. It is here that the doctrine of the Co-Redemptrix comes into focus. She takes up the mission of the Christian here on the way of the cross, that is, to unite our sufferings with Christ so that souls might be saved. Mary does this to the most perfect degree.
It is here that the fourth sorrow gives way to the fifth sorrow. Christ carries His cross to the place of crucifixion to show us that our crosses are insufficient without His cross. Mary teaches us this all-important lesson. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing.19
Let us pray:
O most sorrowful Mary, I compassionate the consternation which thy maternal heart experienced when thou didst meet Jesus bearing His cross. O beloved Mother, by that deep distress of thy tender heart, obtain for me the virtue of patience and the gift of fortitude.20
Hail Mary…
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) was a German mystic who received visions of Christ’s Passion guided by the Blessed Virgin. She received the stigmata during her life and was found to be incorrupt after her death. Her beatification was done apart from consideration of any of her supposed visions. It should be noted that Private Revelation is not meant to be something that adds to the revelation of Scripture and Tradition, but, instead, when approved by the Church, it is well that we meditate on what has been given to us through apparitions and visions. Bl. Emmerich’s visions fall under Private Revelation. Because of this, they are not to be placed on the same level as scripture and tradition. The faithful are under no obligation to believe that they truly occurred. I simply present them as a way to meditate on this sorrow of Our Lady.
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, The Dolores Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Ch.XI.
Cf. Matthew 26:57.
Cf. Matthew 26:59-66.
Dolores Passion, Ch. XI.
Ibid.
Cf. John 19:1.
Dolores Passio, Ch. XXIII.
Cf. Colossians 1:24.
Dolores Passion, Ch. XXIII.
Cf. Matthew 27:19. The earliest of traditions hold that Claudia converted to Christianity soon after these events. She is regarded as a saint in both the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Origin mentions her in his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew as well.
Tradition holds that the Stations of the Cross are a practice originally attributed to Our Blessed Lady. It is held that in the final days of her life, prior to her death and assumption into glory, she returns to Jerusalem and daily walks the steps of her beloved son along the way to His death. In this way, she contemplates the great mystery of redemption, while at the same time, uniting herself to Him in preparation for her own death. Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich also cites Mary’s following along the way on Good Friday as the beginning of the devotion as well. See Dolores Passion, Ch. XVIII.
Dolores Passion, Ch. XXXII.
Ibid.
St. Alphonsus Ligouri, The Glories of Mary, 430.
Ibid.
The Glories of Mary, 431.
Pope St. John Paul II, Homily given at Guayaquil, Equador, January 31, 1985.
Cf. John 15:5.
Blessed Be God, Boonville, NY: Preserving Christian Publications, 2022. 286.