The gift of Jesus's Mother on Good Friday

I am reminded via an email from Catholic U’s Institute for Human Ecology (seriously, they always send really well-written and thoughtful emails, and I think I’ve only ever attended one of their talks, yet I have not unsubscribed) that Good Friday is the day that Jesus really gifted us his Mother, Mary. Is it that she was always humanity’s Mother, as soon as she conceived? I guess so. But it is in his telling us so that it becomes fact, real, alive.

John 19:25-27:

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.

I have always had a strong Marian devotion - that’s just the way it is. But, I know that others struggle there, to see her role in God’s plan and to understand why she matters.

But if you do struggle: look to Jesus’s own words here. As I talked about earlier this week on Morning Air, Mary gives us a wealth of ways, this week in particular, to learn how to be a disciple with Jesus. She is our Mother, and also our example. She is perfect, but not unrelatable. She is a queen, but not out of reach. And her motherhood extends beyond her very real role as Christ-bearer, to all aspects of our spiritual lives: she is the Mother of Divine Grace, Mother of Good Counsel, Mother of Perpetual Help, Seat of Wisdom, Queen of Peace. If you turn over parts of your life to her, see how she addresses them for the better, or multiplies them for your good. It’s just how it works.

It being Good Friday, today is a day of solemnity, and so I stay in that existence today. Fasting, yes, and of course, watching The Passion of the Christ, as you do. I know that I don’t “get” Good Friday or have a “successful” or “good” one of my own doing. That, like so much else, is a matter of God’s own grace. So, that is my prayer - that I would be open to the grace of what I need to learn, understand, see, and experience, in these last moments before the Resurrection. How good is the faith, that we get to have this strange and powerful time - that He trusted us with it, because He cares that much about us. How good indeed!

Entering Triddum...

This week I joined the Morning Air show to talk about journeying through Holy Week with Mary, which you can listen to here. It is true that the grief Mary felt during that time is basically impossible to conceive or understand (and I hope I never do). But, we learn much from her example, especially her fidelity to Jesus. Staying by his side through it all, through her own fear and questions.

We talked also about how different movie representations of the passion can help our understanding. I, perhaps like you, have a tradition of watching The Passion of the Christ on Good Friday. Think about all that we get to see of Mary during that movie. Remember the scene where Jesus is chained and she knows where he is through the floor, without seeing him, and vice versa? Who are we to say it was not like that?

May your next few days in this holy season be fruitful as we look forward to the Resurrection!

Why go on retreat? And, Lent comes to and end

Friends, my latest article is up at Catholic Stand, Why go on retreat? It contains my own reflections on the experience of being on retreat, specifically contemplative prayer retreats, and why going on retreat is not just for religious people. Have a read!

I will be joining the Morning Air show this Tuesday, 4/4 at 7:10 am eastern, though topic to be determined. You can listen here.

And, Lent is drawing close to its end, which will be next Thursday - Holy Thursday. How was your Lent? Do you even know, yet?

I took a different approach this year and ended up focusing much more on love than on penance. I began it with a retreat about the writings of Julian of Norwich, and she focused on the incomprehensible nature of God’s love. And I thought - that’s what’s going to bring me closer to God this Lent, not an inordinate amount of fasting. And, it did. It is strange to have someone speaking to you through the ages, through her writings written while living in a sealed cell, in another time and place, yet so relevant and real for today.

Lent is different for each person. The ways in which we draw close to God, and he draws us close to him, will differ not only person to person, but year to year. Perhaps next year I will want to be more penitential. So it goes. And perhaps you did something small, and your neighbor did something big. Good! God takes all we give Him - in love.

May you have a fruitful and deep Holy Week.