The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
S. Anselm (de Excell. Virg. cap . v.) says, “ Whatever cruelty was inflicted on the bodies of the martyrs, was light or rather nothing in comparison with thy suffering, which in its very immensity pierced through to the inmost parts of thy most tender heart. And I could not believe that thou couldest endure such cruel tortures without losing thy life, unless the spirit of life itself, the spirit of consolation , the spirit of thy most loving Son, for whose death thou wast then in torture, taught thee within that it was not death that was destroying Him, but rather a triumph which was bringing all things under Him, which thou didst behold when He was dying in thy sight "
S. Bernard ( Lamen . B. Maria) says, “ No tongue can speak, nor mind imagine, how the tender feelings of the Virgin were affected with sorrow. Now, O Virgin, thou payest with interest that natural suffering which thou hadst not in childbirth. Thou didst not feel pain at thy Son's birth, but thou sufferedst a thousand-fold more at His death." S. Mechtildis relates a vision in which she saw a seraph saluting the Blessed Virgin on account of the great love she had to God above all other creatures, which was especially manifested in the Passion of her Son, when she kept down all her human feelings, and rejoiced that He was willing to die for the salvation of the world.
John Gerson (in Magnificat) says that she manifested the highest obedience in offering up her Son to the Father, conforming herself therein to the Divine will. He compares her to the mother of the Maccabees, to S. Felicitas, and to S. Symphorosa, who encouraged their sons to suffer martyrdom for the faith.
S. Bridget describes the intense grief of the Virgin (Revel, i. cap. 10, 27, 25 and iv. cap. 23 and 70). His “sorrow was my sorrow," she said, " for His heart was my heart.”
Adrichomius (Descript. Jerusalem ) mentions the exact spot where she stood near the cross, a spot now much honoured (he says) by the pious veneration of the faithful.
A question is here discussed whether the Blessed Virgin reasoned at seeing her Son on the cross. Authorities are given on both sides, the greater part maintaining that she did not, grounding their opinion on her entire conformity to the Divine will, and her own constancy and resolution, suffering rather in her mind than in her senses and feelings.
Salmeron (Lib. x. tract 41) thinks that she swooned at first, and then recovered and stood by the cross : and that her swoon did not deprive her of her reason, but took away her senses for a while.
He adds that she suffered thus of her own accord, to testify to men her exceeding love for Him, and her exceeding sorrow. Just as Christ voluntarily underwent His agony in the garden. Both had perfect control over their feelings, just as Adam had before he fell.
S. Ambrose (de Instit Virginum , cap. vii.) thus writes, “ The mother stood before the cross, and when men fled she remained intrepid. See whether the mother of Jesus could put off her modesty, who put not aside her courage. She looked with loving eyes on the wounds of her Son, through whom she knew that the Redemption of all men would come. She stood, no ignoble spectacle, since she feared not the murderer. The Son was hanging on the Cross, the mother offered herself to the persecutors, as not being ignorant of the mystery, that she had borne one who would rise again.” And S. Athanasius : “ Mary stood most firmly and most patiently in her faith in Jesus. For when the disciples fled, and all men held aloof from Him, to the glory of the whole of her sex, amidst the countless sufferings of her Son, she alone remained firm and constant in her faith, and indeed was a beauteous sight, as became her Virgin modesty. She did not disfigure herself in the great and bitter sorrow. She reviled not, she murmured not, she asked not from God for vengeance on her enemies. But she stood as a well-disciplined modest virgin, most patiently, full of tears, immersed in grief.”
She was indeed so strengthened on beholding the blessed wounds of her Son as to be ready, says S. Ambrose (in Luke xxiii.) herself to die for the salvation of the world. For in faith, strength, and warmth of charity she was not inferior to Abraham, who was willing at God’s command to offer up his son Isaac with his own hand. Besides this, her sure belief in His resurrection alleviated her sorrow and strengthened her resolution. She knew that He would rise on the third day.
Ver. 26. — When Jesus therefore saw His Mother , and His disciple standing by whom He loved , He saith unto His Mother , Woman , behold thy son! Christ pierced her heart with the wound both of love and sorrow, for He meant, Mother, I am, as thou seest, dying on the Cross : I shall not be able to be with thee, to attend to thee, to provide for thee, and assist thee as I have hitherto done. I assign to thee, in my place, John to be thy son ; a man in the place of God, a disciple for a master, an adopted son instead of thine
; in order that he, as a virgin, and most beloved by thee as the Virgin Mother of God, may bestow on thee all the solace, and all the devotion, which both thy dignity and thy advancing age demand, and which the zeal and love of John promises and assures to thee. Christ therefore here teaches that children should care for their parents even to the last, says Theophylact from S. Chrysostom. Hear S. Augustine : “ Here is a passage of moral teaching. Our good Teacher instructed His own by His own example, that pious children should have a care for their parents; as if that wood on which His limbs were fastened when He was dying, were also the chair of the teacher.” For, as
S. Cyril says, “ We ought to learn from Him, and through Him, first of all, that parents must not be neglected, even when intolerable sufferings are hanging over us.” “But wonder, with Theophylact
, at the calmness with which He does everything on the cross ; caring for His mother, fulfilling prophecies, promising paradise to the thief; but before He came to it, how burdened was He, pouring forth His sweat, and full of trouble.” For, as Euthymius says, “ in the one case the weakness of nature was seen, in the other His great power of endurance.” Christ commends His mother to
S. John, whom at the same time He put in His own place as her son, that thus they might have a mutual care for each other.
[Pseudo]-Cyprian (De Passione Christi) gives the reasons for this. First, to provide for His mother, who was now waxing old, the care and kind offices of a son. As if He said, “ I am dying. I cannot
care for thee any more, I resign thee into the hands of John.”
Secondly, that He might commend a Virgin to a Virgin. “ The pure is entrusted to the pure,” says Theophylact. As Nonnus paraphrases it : “ O Mother, thou lover of virginity, behold thy virgin son ; and on the other hand He said to His disciple, O thou lover of virginity, Behold a virgin who is thy parent, without giving thee birth.” And S. Ambrose ( de Instit Virgin) says, " But with whom should the Virgin dwell, rather than with him, whom she knew to be the heir of her Son, and the guardian of her chastity ? ” And in this matter Jesus, as anxious for her purity, wished that her continuance in this state (as a mother and yet a Virgin) should be fully proved. As S. Ambrose writes (ibid.), “that no one should cast on her the reproach of having lost her purity.”
Thirdly, To show that Joseph was not His father, He set him aside, and put John in his place. Hear [Pseudo ]-Cyprian : “Thou carefully providest for her who was Blessed among women, the protection of an Apostle, and Thou deliverest the care of the Virgin to a Virgin-disciple ; in order that Joseph might be no longer burdened with the charge of so great a mystery, but that John should bear it. For reason now demanded that he should no longer be regarded as her husband, nor be counted the father of Christ, who had hitherto held the place of father and husband.” He then meets a tacit objection. “ Joseph would have had good reason to object to this arrangement of Christ had he regarded himself as a husband in the flesh. But because the mystery of that union was spiritual, he allowed John to be preferred to himself in this office, as being more worthy, and more especially because the Master’s choice had so ordered it.”