“Our Lord having expired, two of His disciples … took Him down from the Cross and placed Him in the arms of His afflicted Mother, who received Him with unutterable tenderness.”
At the cemetery where my father is buried, there is a mausoleum wall just down the hill from his grave. Carved into it is a traditional image of the Pietà with these treasured words from St. Alphonsus Liguori’s “Way of the Cross.” A few years ago, when I began making more regular trips to this hill, I noticed the familiar image and beautiful phrase from the 13th Station inscribed there. Particularly, the final words struck me: “unutterable tenderness.”
Truly, words cannot adequately describe the tenderness of this scene, or the tenderness of the Blessed Mother’s heart. Mary of Nazareth once lovingly received the Child Jesus into her own arms, cared for His earthly needs, and walked with Him through life.
As He descends the Cross, she receives His Body again, now lifeless, wounded, and sacrificed. The pain of the image does not overcome the profound and tender love that Our Blessed Mother gives her Son. Instead, it magnifies that love – and gives me profound reassurance.
Our Lady, who was entrusted to the Apostle John and to all humanity in Our Lord’s final breaths, receives her children with this same tenderness as they face their own sufferings. She walked with her Son steadfastly along His brutal journey to Calvary, gazing upon Him through silent and loving tears and praying for Him fiercely.
She was faithful to Him to the end – and she is faithful to us as we feel weighed down by our crosses in life. Our Blessed Mother accompanies us in the midst of suffering, fear, grief, illness, and sorrow. In a special way, I believe that she walks incredibly closely to parents who have lost a child, experienced a miscarriage, or watched a son or daughter suffer terribly. She does not leave our side.
We also cannot underestimate the powerful example she gives in this moment. In her simple and sacred stance at the foot of the Cross, she drew near to the Heart of God in the face of her inexpressible pain. Beneath that bloodied Cross, she modeled fortitude for us, one of the virtues that enabled her to stand tall, not attempting to escape this reality.
Her wounded and tender heart received her Son and placed everything into the hands of her loving Father. What faith and courage her example inspires us to have when facing our own suffering.
These Lenten days challenge us to unite our crosses to the Cross of the Savior, Who brings meaning and redemption to our suffering. As the Church invokes “Our Mother of Sorrows,” we place our needs in her maternal arms.
Have I asked for the grace to see Our Blessed Mother standing faithfully by me as I carry my cross?
Have I entrusted the cross I am bearing to Our Lady with hope and confidence, asking for her to care for me and bring my needs to the Heart of her Son?
Have I asked her to pray that I can be courageous and faithful, accepting God’s Will more fully in my life, even when I do not understand why things are unfolding as they are?
This certainly requires a deep trust and confidence, but I remain reassured. She will receive you with this same “unutterable tenderness.”
By Father Matthew Kuna, Chaplain of St. Christopher Catholic Newman Center, Kutztown University, and Chaplain of Berks Catholic High School, Reading.
