Our Lady at the Foot of the Cross: A Meditation

Our Lady at the Foot of the Cross in the teaching and tradition of the Church Fathers:

Origen, arguably the greatest Eastern theologian of the third century, and the first Church Father to reflect on this mystery, meditates upon the presence of Our Lady at the foot of the Cross as the key to understanding the revelation of God contained in Scripture. Origen, who is given to a spiritualising of the text and an allegorical interpretation of Scripture, shows us that Mary must be our Mother if we are to receive and understand the word of her divine Son, Who is the Word made Flesh. We must be like John if we are to know and understand God’s word, and thus like John we must take Mary to be our mother. The Virgin Mother thus becomes for us the ‘Seat of Wisdom’ as we become ‘another Christ’ by receiving Christ from her:

‘We may therefore make bold to say that the Gospels are the first fruits of all the Scriptures, but that of the Gospels that of John is the first fruits. No one can apprehend the meaning of it except he have lain on Jesus’ breast and received from Jesus Mary to be his mother also. Such an one must he become who is to be another John, and to have shown to him, like John, by Jesus Himself Jesus as he is. For if Mary, as those declare who with sound mind extol her, had no other son but Jesus, and yet Jesus says to His Mother, ‘Woman, behold thy son,’ and not ‘Behold you have this son also,’ then he virtually says to her, ‘Lo this is Jesus whom thou didst bear.’ Is it not the case that every one who is perfect lives himself no longer, but Christ lives in him; and if Christ lives in him, then it is said of him to Mary, ‘Behold thy son Christ.’ What a mind, then, must we have to enable us to interpret in a worthy manner this work...’ (Commentary on John 6).

Saint Jerome uses the relationship of Mother and Son to instruct on the need for chaste and wholesome family living. In 405 AD, a monk from Gaul wrote to Jerome for his advice regarding his mother and sister, who were living separately and yet each cohabiting with a monk! Jerome calls the women to separate from their monk-housemates and at least live independently. This Saint, the translator of the Vulgate Latin Bible, beautifully describes the filial love of Jesus Christ the God-Man for His blessed Mother and foster-father. Our Lady is described as an example of faith and love in the home, the domestic church.

‘If you love each other, your conduct calls for no praise: but if you hate each other, you have committed a crime. The Lord Jesus was subject to His parents. He reverenced that Mother of whom He was Himself the Parent; He respected the foster-father whom He had Himself fostered; for He remembered that He had been carried in the womb of the one and in the arms of the other. Wherefore also when He hung upon the Cross He commended to His disciple the Mother whom He had never before His passion parted from Himself’ (Letter 117).

Reflecting upon the character of Saint John, Jerome remarks, again eloquently, about the event of John 19: ‘Jesus loved the evangelist John more than the other disciples. For it was he who took the Saviour’s parent to his own home; it was the virgin son who received the virgin Mother as a legacy from the Lord’ (Letter 127).

Defending the ancient doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Virgin again the novel teaching of Jovinian, Jerome recalls the examples of both Saint John and the Holy Mother in cultivating a love of chastity and consecrated life. In this particular instance, Jerome describes the characteristics of the four Gospels and their writers: ‘John like an eagle soars aloft, and reaches the Father Himself, saying, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.’ The virgin writer expounded mysteries..., and to briefly sum up all and show how great was the privilege of John, or rather of virginity in John, the Virgin Mother was entrusted by the Virgin Lord to the virgin disciple’ (Against Jovinian I). Later again Jerome extols the virtue of Saint John by using the John 19 episode: ‘The last evangelist is John, whom Jesus loved most, who reclining on the Lord’s bosom drank the purest streams of doctrine, and was the only one thought worthy of the words from the Cross, Behold thy Mother!’ (Preface to Matthew).

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem

Saint Cyril, in 350 AD, uses John 19 to teach about Our Lord’s Person as God: ‘And God’s Only-Begotten Son Himself, when nailed in His flesh to the tree at the time of the Crucifixion, on seeing Mary, His own Mother according to the flesh, and John, the most beloved of disciples, said to him, Behold thy Mother, and to her, Behold thy son: teaching her the parental affection due to him, and indirectly explaining that which is said in Luke, ‘and His father and mother marvelled at Him,’ words which the tribe of heretics snatch up, saying that He was begotten of a man and a woman. For like as Mary was called the mother of John, because of her paternal affection, not from having given him birth, so Joseph also was called the father of Christ, not from having begotten Him (for he knew her not, as the Gospel says, until she had brought forth her first-born Son), but because of the care bestowed on His nature.’ (Mystical Catechesis 7.9).

Saint Hilary of Poitiers defends the orthodox doctrine of the Nicene Creed and the First Ecumenical Council against the heresy of Arianism, which denied the Deity of Jesus Christ (instead holding Our Lord to be God’s first creature - ‘there was when He was not’) by invoking the authority of the beloved disciple, Saint John. The Johannine texts of the New Testament are interpreted by Saint Hilary in the orthodox manner, affirming that Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, He Who is ‘of one substance’ (homoousios) with the Father. In the course of his instruction, Hilary mentions the presence of both Saint John and Our Lady at the Cross. Notice the sarcastic rhetoric employed against Arius the heresiarch, which at the same time affirms the spiritual motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

‘A false wisdom, void of the Spirit of God, asserts that Jesus Christ is not the true Son of God, but a creature of His, Who bears the Divine Name by adoption. In what dark oracle of hidden knowledge was the secret learnt? To whose research do we owe this, the great discovery of the day? Were you he that lay upon the bosom of the Lord? You he to whom in the familiar intercourse of love Christ revealed the mystery? Was it you that alone followed Him to the foot of the Cross? And while He was charging you to receive Mary as your Mother, did He teach you this secret, as the token of His peculiar love for yourself?...For you transform all these into lies. The Apostle, by that most excellent knowledge that was granted him, speaks of the Son of God as true...While the true Son of God is eternal life and resurrection to us, for him in whose eyes He is not true, there is neither eternal life nor resurrection. And this is the lesson taught by John, the beloved disciple of the Lord.’ (De Trinitate 6.43)

Saint Ambrose of Milan comments on the scene in Saint John 19 as being both an admonition to mothers to follow the example of Mary’s love and devotion and as a true account demonstrating the piety and mutual love of Jesus Christ and His Mother. Mary STOOD at the Cross, a sign of her spiritual strength and her indefatigable, indestructible faith in her Son and His act of salvation, the perfect example for all Christians. Note how Saint Ambrose definitely rules out any doctrine of Our Lady as a ‘co-redemptrix’ or co-worker with Christ’s atoning sacrifice...

‘Mary, the Mother of the Lord, stood by her Son’s Cross; no one has taught me this but the holy evangelist Saint John. Others have related how the earth was shaken at the Lord’s passion, the sky was covered with darkness, the sun withdrew itself; that the thief was after a faithful confession received into paradise. John tells us what the others have not told, how the Lord fixed on the Cross called to His Mother, esteeming it of more worth that, victorious over His sufferings, He rendered her the offices of piety, than that He gave her a heavenly kingdom. For if it be according to religion to grant pardon to the thief, it is a mark of much greater piety that a Mother is honoured with such affection by her Son. ‘Behold’ he says ‘thy son’...’Behold thy Mother.’ Christ testified from the Cross, and divided the offices of piety between the Mother and the disciple. The Lord made not only a public but also a private testament, and John signed this testament of His, a witness worthy of so great a Testator. A good testament not only of money but of eternal life, which was written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God Who says: ‘My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.' Nor was Mary below what was becoming the Mother of Christ. When the Apostles fled, she stood at the Cross, and with pious eyes beheld her Son’s wounds, for she did not look for the death of her Offspring, but the salvation of the world. Or perchance because that Royal Hall, the Virgin, knew that the redemption of the world would be through the death of her Son, she thought that by her death also she might add something to the public welfare. But Jesus did not need a helper for the redemption of all, Who saved all without a helper. He received indeed the affection of his Mother, but sought not another’s help...Imitate her, holy mothers, who in her only dearly beloved Son set forth so great an example of maternal virtue; for neither have you sweeter children, nor did the Virgin seek the consolation of being able to bear another Son.’ (Saint Ambrose of Milan, Letter 63).

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Note the practical teaching of Saint Augustine in relation to the commandment, ‘honour thy father and thy mother.’ He also utilises John 19 as an instrument for teaching about the fact of the Incarnation, that Jesus Christ is God and Man. ‘This without a doubt was the hour whereof Jesus, when about to turn the water into wine, has said to his mother, 'Woman what have I to do with thee, my hour has not yet come.’ This hour therefore He had foretold, which at that time had not yet arrived, when it should be His to acknowledge her at the point of death, and with reference to which He had been born as a mortal man. At that time, therefore, when about to engage in divine acts, he repelled as one unknown, her who was the mother, not of his divinity, but of His human infirmity; but now, when in the midst of human sufferings, He commended with human affection the mother by whom He had become Man. For then, He who had created Mary became known in His power; but now, that which Mary had brought forth was hanging on the Cross. A passage, therefore, of a moral character is inserted here. The good Teacher does what he thereby reminds us ought to be done, and by his own example instructed His disciples that care for their parents ought to be a matter of concern to pious children: as if that tree to which the members of the dying One were affixed were the very chair of office from which the Master was imparting instruction...Of this most wholesome precept, therefore the very Master of the Saints set the example from Himself, when, not as God for the handmaid whom He had created and governed, but as Man for the mother, of whom He had been created, and whom He was now leaving behind, He provided in some measure another son in place of Himself.... But what was this ‘his own’ unto which John took the mother of the Lord? For he was not outside the circle of those who said unto Him, ’Lo we have left all and followed thee.’ That disciple therefore had an hundredfold more than he had cast away, whereunto to receive the mother of Him who had graciously bestowed it all...’ (On the Gospel of John 119).

Saint John Chrysostom, the Golden-Mouthed preacher, also examines the event theologically in reference to Christ as God and Man. As proof of the Perpetual Virginity, the Archbishop of Constantinople urges upon his readers the event of the commendation of the Virgin Mother to Saint John. The use of this text as a support for the doctrine of Our Lady as a virgin ‘before, during, and after the birth’ of the Saviour is a common penchant of the Church Fathers.

‘For if Saint Joseph had known the Virgin, and had kept her in the place of a wife, how is it that Our Lord commits her, as unprotected, and having no one, to His disciple, and command him to take her to his own home? (On the Gospel of Matthew 5.5)

St. John echoes St. Augustine in seeing John 19 as an axiomatic principle of respect for parents; more deeply, he perceives Our Lord’s commendation of Our Lady to Saint John as symbolic of the unity of the Church, and of our unity as Christians with each other and with the Virgin in the bond of charity: ‘But Christ on the Cross, committeth his mother to the disciple, teaching us even to our last breath to show every care for our parents. When she indeed unseasonably troubled Him, He said, ‘Woman, what have I do to with thee...’ But here He showeth much loving affection and committeth her to the disciple whom He loved...And He, having committed His mother to John, said, ‘Behold thy son.’ O the honour! with what honour did He honour the disciple! when He Himself was now departing, He committed her to the disciple... to him He saith, ‘Behold thy Mother.’ This He said, knitting them together in charity; which the disciple understanding, took her to his own home... And by these words He silences the shamelessness of Marcion; for if Jesus were not born according to the flesh, nor had a mother, wherefore taketh He such forethought for her alone? (Homily 85 on the Gospel of John).

Saint Gregory the Great reflects upon the fact that it is the human nature assumed from the Blessed Virgin that makes it possible for our Saviour to offer His life in redemption for the world. Mary’s flesh, taken-up by God Himself in the Incarnation, enables the God-Man to die upon the Cross for us. In his teaching, Gregory gives us an excellent interpretation of the enigmatic words of Christ in St. John 2 which seem at first sight to rebuff and denigrate the Mother of God, but rather refer to the ‘hour’ of Christ’s death and glorification on Calvary. Mary clearly plays the role here of the New Eve, who participates through her God-bearing flesh in the mystery of her Son’s redemptive act.

‘God, made man, knew the day and the hour of the judgement through the power of His Deity; as also at the marriage, when the Virgin Mother said that wine was wanting, He replied, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come (St. John 2.4). For it was not that the Lord of the angels was subject to the hour, having, among all things which He had created, made hours and times. But, because the Virgin Mother, when wine was wanting, wished a miracle to be done by Him, it was at once answered her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? As if to say plainly, ‘The ability to do a miracle comes to me from my Father, not my Mother.’ For He who of the nature of His Father did miracles had it of His Mother that He could die. Whence also, when He was on the Cross, in dying acknowledged His Mother, whom He commended to the beloved disciple, saying Behold thy Mother. Then he truly says, Woman, what have I to do with thee. Mine hour has not yet come. That is: ‘In the miracle which I do not have from thy nature, I do not acknowledge thee. When the hour of death shall come, I shall acknowledge thee as my Mother, since I have it of thee that I can die.’ (Saint Gregory the Great, Epistle 39)

The Holy Fathers use the commending of the Virgin to Saint John, the beloved disciple who represents us, to transmit to us the pure doctrine concerning the Person of Our Lord as the eternal Word. For them, this episode, like all events relating to Mary, points through Mary, the Mother of the Lord, to the Lord Himself. Mary’s example and faith serve to show us Jesus, the end, object and finisher of our faith. Mary’s person and role function to defend the truth of Our Lord’s Incarnation.

Saint Cyril of Alexandra’s teaching codified by the Third Ecumenical Council (431 AD) summarises the truth...

If anyone does not confess that the Emmanuel is in truth God, and that the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God (Theotokos), because she bore according to the flesh the Word of God when He became flesh: let him be anathema.

Mary is the Mother of Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is God
Mary is the Mother of God

The role of the Virgin Mary is to point us to Christ. All Marian devotion, to be orthodox, biblical, and therefore genuine, must be Christ-centred. The Virgin directs us to her Son that we may worship, love and serve Him. The wisdom of the Church Catholic throughout the ages dictates that honouring the Virgin does not detract from Christ, but rightly understood and practised, deepens our love and devotion to Him Who is both Son of God and Son of Mary. Tragically, those Christian bodies which have abandoned the right veneration and honour due to the Lord’s Mother have lost sight of essential Christian truth and have often fallen into heresy by rejecting the Incarnation and the Divinity of Jesus Christ, the true Eternal Son of the Eternal Father, ‘one of the Holy Trinity,’ the Second Person of the Godhead made Man. Mary is rightly called by the Church Fathers the ‘Touchstone of Orthodoxy.’

‘He who honours the Mother worships the Son; he who neglects the Mother forgets the Son’ (attributed to Saint Ambrose).

‘Honour thy father and thy mother’ - Christ did this perfectly, honouring His earthly Mother perfectly; if we are to intimate Christ and be perfect, we must honour our earthly parents and honour Our Lord’s own Mother, who received such filial love, affection and devotion from her divine Son. Our Lady at the foot of the Cross, she who is our Mother, guides us to Jesus, our one Mediator and Advocate.

Mary says very little in the New Testament: these are her most important words:
‘Whatsoever he saith unto you do it.’ Let us follow her instructions.