Saint John Henry Newman on the Happy Sorrowful Mother

Newman's Meditation on the Thirteenth Station (Jesus is taken from the Cross, and laid in Mary's Bosom):

THE multitude have gone home. Calvary is left solitary and still, except that St. John and the holy women are there. Then come Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, and take down from the Cross the body of Jesus, and place it in the arms of Mary.

O Mary, at last thou hast possession of thy Son. Now, when His enemies can do no more, they leave Him in contempt to thee. As His unexpected friends perform their difficult work, thou lookest on with unspeakable thoughts. Thy heart is pierced with the sword of which Simeon spoke. O Mother most sorrowful; yet in thy sorrow there is a still greater joy. The joy in prospect nerved thee to stand by Him as He hung upon the Cross; much more now, without swooning, without trembling, thou dost receive Him to thy arms and on thy lap. Now thou art supremely happy as having Him, though He comes to thee not as He went from thee. He went from thy home, O Mother of God, in the strength and beauty of His manhood, and He comes back to thee dislocated, torn to pieces, mangled, dead. Yet, O Blessed Mary, thou art happier in this hour of woe than on the day of the marriage feast, for then He was leaving thee, and now in the future, as a Risen Saviour, He will be separated from thee no more.

Anyone who watched Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ will remember the tableau of Mary holding Jesus's body in her arms, looking forward at the viewer, with a look of desolation and emptiness on her face. It was a powerful image.

But Newman sees the scene very differently; indeed, very differently even from some of his commentary on Mary's feelings after the Marriage Feast of Cana in several paragraphs of "Our Lord Refuses Sympathy" we discussed on the Son Rise Morning Show (Monday, March 31). 

But in this mediation on the Thirteenth Station of the Cross Newman has left much of that sorrow behind in the joy of the coming Resurrection and Ascension. As the Crucifixion is one of her Seven Sorrows, the Resurrection and Ascension are two of her Seven Joys.

When Our Lord meets His Sorrowful Mother, Newman also emphasizes that Mary sees the contrast between her Son before and during His Passion: "She had known Him beautiful and glorious, with the freshness of Divine Innocence and peace upon His countenance; now she saw Him so changed and deformed that she could scarce have recognised Him, save for the piercing, thrilling, peace-inspiring look He gave her." 

And he ascribes the aid given to Jesus by Simon of Cyrene and Veronica to the Mother of God in the next two stations:

--"This came of Mary's intercession. He prayed, not for Himself, except that He might drink the full chalice of suffering and do His Father's will; but she showed herself a mother by following Him with her prayers, since she could help Him in no other way. She then sent this stranger to help Him. It was she who led the soldiers to see that they might be too fierce with Him. Sweet Mother, even do the like to us. Pray for us ever, Holy Mother of God, pray for us, whatever be our cross, as we pass along on our way."

--"As Jesus toils along up the hill, covered with the sweat of death, a woman makes her way through the crowd, and wipes His face with a napkin. In reward of her piety the cloth retains the impression of the Sacred Countenance upon it.

"The relief which a Mother's tenderness secured is not yet all she did. Her prayers sent Veronica as well as Simon—Simon to do a man's work, Veronica to do the part of a woman. The devout servant of Jesus did what she could. As Magdalen had poured the ointment at the Feast, so Veronica now offered Him this napkin in His passion."

V. We adore Thee O Christ, and we bless Thee.

R. Because by Thy Holy Cross, Thou hast redeemed the world.