The Life of Mary as Seen by the Mystics Page 20

  Since her divine Son would soon leave her to return to His Father in heaven, the force of Mary’s love for Jesus increased a thousandfold, and she experienced an intense longing to be in His presence as much as possible. The beauty and purity of her soul also refreshed the Saviour so much that He too loved to be with her, for her mere presence repaid Him for all His labors. At this crucial time the Lord and His Mother began to distribute the graces of conversion and healing more generously than ever among the poor and the suffering.

  Later, while Jesus and Mary were staying at the home of Lazarus in Bethany, near Jerusalem, after the sensational miracle of the raising of Lazarus from the tomb, Judas gave way to anger and even hatred for Jesus when the Master defended Mary Magdalen for having anointed His feet with an expensive perfume. It was then that Judas decided to plot the arrest of Christ with the Pharisees.

  Knowing his secret thoughts, the Blessed Virgin called Judas aside on the night before Palm Sunday, and with tears of compassion in her eyes she explained to him the terrible danger which threatened his soul if he persisted in his evil intentions. She urged him to take vengeance on her if he were offended at his Master, and she offered him some presents which Magdalen had given her. But her kind words had no effect on Judas, who merely showed his cold anger by a sullen silence, though he did accept the gifts.

  Mary then went to Jesus and cast herself weeping at His feet. She knew that He was now beginning to suffer His bitter sorrow unto death, and she wanted to share it with Him and thus console Him. Together they prostrated themselves on the ground and prayed for sinners, offering themselves as willing victims for the salvation of mankind.

  Just before midnight the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit appeared to Jesus and Mary, surrounded by a multitude of angels. Then the Father formally accepted the sacrifice of the Son, in order that humanity might thus obtain pardon through the satisfaction of divine justice upon the Innocent Victim. And addressing the Blessed Virgin, the eternal Father said:

  “Mary, our Daughter and Spouse, I desire that you ratify this sacrifice of your Son for the redemption of men.”

  The Mother of God replied:

  “O Lord, I offer Him and myself entirely as a sacrifice to Thy divine will, but I beseech Thee to permit me to suffer with Thy Son and mine!”

  The heavenly Father raised up Jesus and Mary from the ground and said:

  “This is the fruit of the blessed earth which I have desired.”

  Then He exalted the Saviour in His humanity and placed Him in heaven on His right, while the Mother of God reverently uttered the first words of the l09th Psalm: “The Lord said unto my Lord: ‘Sit Thou at My right hand. . . .’” And the eternal Father intoned the rest of the Psalm’s mystic prophecies, which were now about to be fulfilled.

  Throughout the following day, while Christ the king, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, received the enthusiastic acclamations of His followers, the Blessed Virgin remained in retirement in Lazarus’ home in Bethany, although by visions she was able to watch the thrilling triumph of her Son. She noticed how sad He was as He gazed at the Holy City and wept over its approaching destruction, and she perceived the extraordinary gravity and serene majesty of His countenance during the solemn procession. On this occasion she heard the Voice of the eternal Father in heaven declare:

  “I have glorified, and I shall glorify again!”

  A few days later the heart of Judas had become so filled with evil that he made arrangements with the Pharisees to betray his Master to them at the earliest opportunity. Returning to Bethany, he inquired of the Apostles and even of Jesus and Mary what their plans were for the next few days. When he questioned the Blessed Virgin, she replied quietly and sadly:

  “Who can penetrate, O Judas, the secret judgments of the Most High?”

  Henceforth she no longer warned him, though with Jesus she continued to tolerate his presence and to pray for him. But when alone with her angels, Mary let her heartrending sorrow overflow. And, as the Master repeated to His friends in Bethany His predictions that His Passion was near, they too became profoundly sad.

  During this last week, while Jesus was teaching nearly every day in the Temple in Jerusalem, His Mother frequently prayed with the holy women under the trees in the garden of Lazarus. Sometimes they stood together, sometimes they knelt, or again they sat apart, meditating in silence. One morning the Master gave a special instruction to all the women.

  During His last talk with His Apostles in a private room of the Temple, when He spoke of leaving them, Peter asked whether He would take with Him His Mother whom they all loved and reverenced so much, and Jesus answered that she would remain with them for some years, and He also said many other things in praise of her.

  The next day, while instructing about thirty of His disciples in Bethany, He revealed to them that His holy Mother would suffer with Him in her compassionate heart all the cruel torture of His Passion, that she would mystically die His bitter death with Him, but that she would still have to survive Him for about fifteen years.

  During these days between Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday, the Saviour passed every moment He could spare with His Mother, who was inexpressibly sad. He disclosed to her many divine mysteries concerning the Redemption, and He told her all that she was to do during His Passion and Death. In these talks He spoke to her with a new reserve and majesty, for now the tenderness and caresses of a son toward his mother had ceased.

  Jesus Goes to Bethany

  XXIX

  Holy Thursday

  t dawn on Holy Thursday Jesus called Mary to Him and said to her:

  “My Mother, the hour decreed by My Father for the salvation of the human race has now arrived, and we must subject our wills to His. As My true Mother, give Me your permission to enter upon My suffering and death. Just as you consented of your own free will to My Incarnation, so I now desire that you also consent to My death on the cross. This sacrifice is the return which I ask of you for having made you My Mother.”

  These words pierced Mary’s loving heart with the sharpest pain which she had hitherto felt. Looking at her divine Son, she remembered how He had obeyed her for so many years, and she recalled all the blessings which He had given her throughout their thirty-three years together. And she realized that now she had to lose Him and give Him up to a cruel death at the hands of His enemies.

  Prostrating herself before Him and kissing His feet, she replied:

  “My Lord, I offer myself and resign myself, in order that in me, just as in Thee, the will of the eternal Father may be fulfilled. The greatest sacrifice that I can make is that I cannot die with Thee. O my Son and Lord, give Thy afflicted Mother strength and courage. Admit her as Thy companion so that she may share Thy Passion and Cross and so that the eternal Father may receive the sacrifice of Thy Mother in union with Thine.”

  Then, knowing that the Saviour intended to institute the Most Blessed Sacrament of His Body and Blood before He died, Mary humbly begged Him to allow her to receive Him in the Holy Eucharist, for which she had longed and had been preparing herself for many years. The Lord then promised her that He would secretly give Himself to her in Holy Communion when He instituted It, and He instructed her to follow Him to Jerusalem that evening with the holy women and to prepare them for the shock of His death. He also told her exactly when and where He would first appear to her after His Resurrection. Like a devoted Son, Jesus now thanked her for all her love, while He embraced her with His right arm and pressed her to His breast. Finally, as unutterable sorrow filled His Sacred Heart and her Immaculate Heart, Jesus lovingly gave His Mother His blessing and left her. At His command her many guardian angels attended Mary in visible form and strove to console her in her overwhelming grief.

  That afternoon the Blessed Virgin and the holy women went to Jerusalem together, and she instructed them so inspiringly that during the Passion some of them showed more courage and faithfulness to their Master than many of the Apostles. Mary Magdalen had resolved with all the fe
rvor of her passionate nature to accompany and assist her Lord’s holy Mother, no matter what happened, and she faithfully fulfilled her resolution.

  Upon arriving at the hall in which the Last Supper was to take place, Mary prostrated herself on the floor and adored her divine Son, and He told her to occupy an adjoining room with the holy women. Going into that room, they reclined around a low table. Magdalen was opposite the Blessed Virgin. During the meal, while Jesus was encouraging and consoling His Apostles, even Mary seemed more cheerful. When John, the Beloved Disciple, was reclining on the bosom of Jesus, the Lord revealed to him many mysteries concerning His Mother, and it was then that He privately commissioned John to take charge of her after the Passion. In visions Mary saw with what sincere love the Master humbly washed the feet of His Apostles and especially of His betrayer, Judas. Yet when occasionally one of the women came to her and attracted her attention by a little pull at her veil, the Blessed Virgin turned to her in a touchingly simple and kind way. Frequently she urged them all to persevere in faith and prayer.

  Then, knowing that the moment of her First Holy Communion was near, the Mother of God became absorbed in meditation as she contemplated the sacred drama of the Institution of the Holy Eucharist, in close spiritual union with her Son’s prayers and actions. At the climax of this beautiful and moving ceremony, immediately after the Consecration, while Mary was reverently adoring her divine Son in the Blessed Sacrament, in the presence of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, our Lord took a particle of the Consecrated Bread and gave it to the invisible Archangel Gabriel, who brought it to Mary, without anyone else being aware of what was happening. When she saw Gabriel approach, she humbly received her Eucharistic Lord with reverence and fear and joy, giving thanks to God with all her heart.

  Later when Jesus was about to leave the Cenacle with the Apostles, Mary rose and went to meet Him at the door. Magdalen and another woman begged Jesus not to go to the Mount of Olives, for it was reported that He would be arrested there. The Master comforted them with a few words. Then He came face to face with His Sorrowful Mother, who threw herself at His feet and worshiped Him.

  Looking down at her with divine majesty and also with the overflowing love of a Son, the Lord said to her:

  “My Mother, I shall be with you in tribulation. Let us accomplish the will of the eternal Father and the salvation of men!”

  Then, as Mary made a silent offering of her grieving heart to God, He gave her His blessing, and stepping quickly past her, He set out for Gethsemani.

  XXX

  The Passion

  y special favor of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin was able to see in visions everything that happened to her divine Son during His Passion. Thus she was able to co-operate with Him in His redeeming suffering for mankind by uniting the prayers and sacrifices of her Immaculate Heart to those of His Sacred Heart. Throughout His Passion, our Lord derived almost His only consolation from the love and holiness of His Mother.

  When the Saviour and His Apostles left the Cenacle for Gethsemani, the Blessed Virgin went to the home of Mary Mark with Magdalen and several of the Holy Women. On the way they met Lazarus, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea, who reported that they knew of no immediate steps being planned against Jesus. But Mary described to them Judas’ sudden departure from the Cenacle, and she expressed her fear that he intended to betray his Master that same night. Actually she had witnessed in vision the plotting of Judas and the Pharisees.

  As the Redeemer began to pray in the Garden of Gethsemani, His Mother likewise retired to a private room and begged the eternal Father that she might be allowed to feel all the physical and spiritual pain and torture which her Son was about to undergo. The Holy Trinity granted her prayer.

  As though in response to her loving self-sacrifice, Jesus in Gethsemani turned toward her, and they mystically exchanged unspoken messages of mutual sympathy and encouragement. Then the Saviour went to His three sleeping Apostles, and He especially urged them to console and to comfort His Mother during the days ahead, after His death, which He described to them. Later, during His bloody sweat, Mary sent some of her angels to Him with a towel, so that He might wipe and dry His holy face.

  When Judas betrayed his Master with a kiss, the Blessed Virgin prayed fervently for his conversion, and then she interceded for the soldiers as they were thrown unconscious to the ground by the invisible power of God; subsequently they all became Christians. Judas, however, refused to cooperate with the rich graces which the Mother of God obtained for him, and she wept bitterly over his tragic fate.

  She also prayed especially for the Apostles of Christ as they fled in fear of their lives. In this dark hour of her Son’s arrest, when His closest followers abandoned Him, Mary united in her valiant heart all the faith and holiness and worship of the Christian Church, for she alone preserved perfect hope and love and adoration for the Incarnate Lord. And as His enemies began to insult and mistreat Him, she correspondingly increased her praise of the suffering God-Man, thus making reparation for the sacrilegious sins of evil men.

  When the soldiers arrested and bound Jesus, His Mother felt on her wrists the same pains caused by the ropes and chains on His flesh. Similarly she felt on her delicate body all the blows and kicks and falls which He suffered while being dragged to the palace of the High Priest.

  At this time the Blessed Virgin went out into the dark streets with some friends, as they wanted to find out what was going to be done to Jesus. They were able to watch the procession of the guards and their victim from a distance. Mary was speechless with grief. The little group of holy women tried to avoid the crowds that were gathering, and often they were obliged to hide in an alley while a band of Jesus’ enemies passed by. Several times Mary and her friends were insulted as women of bad character, and more than once they heard men curse or slander her Son.

  Then the Holy Women went to the home of Lazarus’ sister, Martha, in the western part of the city, where John met them and told them all that had happened since the Master had left the Cenacle. Although they were deeply upset, each tried to help and console her neighbor. At intervals other messengers came and knocked lightly at the door, bringing further discouraging news.

  Meanwhile Jesus had been led before the High Priest, and His first trial had begun. One of the points over which the various witnesses argued bitterly among themselves was the legitimacy of His birth.

  As soon as John the Beloved Disciple, who had gained admittance into the judgment hall, heard Caiphas declare that Jesus deserved death, he gave his Master a compassionate look which meant: “Lord, You know why I am leaving,” and he hastened to Martha’s house near by, in order to break the sad news gently to the Blessed Virgin and to console her in this terrible moment.

  After hearing John’s distressing report, Mary and the Holy Women yearned to be as close as possible to their suffering Lord, and so they insisted that John should lead them to the judgment hall at once.

  Mary Magdalen, who was almost out of her mind with grief, staggered with the others through the moonlit streets, sobbing and wringing her hands. Again they were frequently insulted by the enemies of Jesus.

  The Blessed Virgin endured it all in silence, like her divine Son, who at the same moment was being mocked and struck in the High Priest’s palace. But her inner suffering in sympathy with Him was so intense that occasionally her companions had to support her in their arms. Once when they met a friendly group who greeted Mary as “the most unhappy and afflicted Mother of the Holy One of Israel,” the Blessed Virgin thanked them earnestly for their kindness.

  Near the palace of Caiphas they had to pass by a yard where some cursing laborers were hammering away at the cross for the newly condemned Criminal. Nevertheless Mary prayed with a grieving heart for the wretched men.

  John conducted the Holy Women to a corner of the outer court of the judgment hall. The Mother of God knew that her Son was just on the other side of the closed door, and she longed to be with Him.

  Seeing
in vision how Peter denied his Master three times, she wept and prayed fervently for him, and her prayers earned him the grace of an almost immediate repentance.

  Suddenly the door of the hall opened, and Peter rushed out, weeping bitterly. In the glare of the torches he recognized John and Mary. His conscience was already deeply stirred by the penetrating look which Jesus had just given him, and now he trembled as the Blessed Virgin said to him:

  “O Simon, what about my Son? What about Jesus?”

  Being unable to speak or to endure Mary’s questioning eyes, Peter miserably turned away. But Mary approached him and said in a voice choked with emotion:

  “Simon, are you not going to answer me?”

  Then Peter exclaimed:

  “Mother, do not speak to me! Your Son is suffering cruelly. They have condemned Him to death—and I have shamefully denied Him three times!”