The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
This rests on the supposition that Joseph was then alive. But most commentators, and with greater probability, think otherwise. For no mention whatever is made of him, and Christ seems to have commended His mother to the care of John, because Joseph was dead. For had he been alive, Christ would certainly have committed His mother to his care, as He had done at His Incarnation and Nativity, and as having had experience of his fidelity and care in the flight into Egypt, and at other times.
Fourthly, John alone remained fearlessly and firmly with Mary at the cross, amidst all the insolence and reviling of the Jews. He therefore deserved to be adopted by Jesus as His brother, and to be put in His room as the son of the Virgin Mother. Moreover, Christ commended, in the person of S. John, the rest of the Apostles, nay all the faithful, to His mother, especially those who are chaste and virgins, and follow most closely Christ on His Cross, and thus become most beloved and most closely joined to Christ, just as was S. John, who was called by [Pseudo]-Cyprian His chamber-fellow.
Whom He loved. To whom He exhibited greater external tokens of love, as being younger than the other Apostles, more modest and chaste, and loving Him more than did the rest.
Woman , behold Thy Son ! He calls her woman, not mother, “ lest that loved name should wound the mother’s heart,’ ” as Baptist of Mantua says : not to rouse the Scribes and Pharisees against her ; to show that He had put off all human affections, that He resigned all human relationships, and wished to teach their abandonment ; and lastly, to arouse her courage and strength of mind to bear all these things with fortitude, and to remind her of that resolute woman whom Solomon had foretold (Prov. xxxi. 1). For the Blessed Virgin suffered for a longer time than Christ. His suffering ceased at His death. Her suffering and compassion increased more and more. For she received His body when taken down from the cross, thus reviving her grief ; and for the three days He lay in the tomb, His sufferings on the cross, which she had witnessed close at hand, remained vividly impressed on her mind, and gave it pain, till Christ rose again, and removed them all by the consolations and glory of His appearing. Again, the Blessed Virgin was left behind Him, to be the mother of the Apostles and the faithful, to gather them together again, to comfort the afflicted, to support the stumbling, to advise the doubting and anxious, and through all trials direct, instruct, and animate them.
This Cornelius illustrates from various ecclesiastical writers. He quotes also the very strong expressions used towards B. V. M. in the Litanies of the Church. And much stronger language of S. Bernard ( Serm . iv. de Assumptione , and Horn. iv. on the text “Missus est” (Luke i. 26), and Horn. ii. on Pentecost , and several other passages of the like character).
Ver. 27. — Then saith he to His disciple , Behold thy mother ! Love her, attend to her, help her, as thy mother. And, on the other hand, betake thyself to her, as thy mother in every difficulty, temptation, persecution, and affliction. She will cherish thee with motherly affection, will console and protect thee, and ask help for thee from her Son. And these words of Christ are not mere lip words, and without effect, like those of men : but as the words of God they are real and efficacious, and effect that which they declare. And accordingly they impressed on S. John a filial affection and spirit towards the Blessed Virgin, as though she were his mother. Theophylact exclaims, “ How wonderful ! how doth He honour His disciple, in making him His brother? How good is it to stand by the cross, and to abide close to Christ in His sufferings ! ” And S. Chrysostom : “ What honour does He confer on His disciple ! For when He was about to depart He left the care of His mother to His disciple. For when it was natural for her to sorrow as His mother, and to seek for protection, He most fitly commends her to His beloved disciple, to whom He says, ‘ Behold thy mother ! ’ that so they might be bound together in love.”
Behold thy mother! And the mother also of thy fellow- Apostles. Accordingly all the faithful (as S. Bernard teaches) should betake themselves to her with full confidence and love. She is the Eve of the faithful, the mother of all living, to whom the wise and Saints of every age betake themselves.
Hear S. Augustine : “ When He said these words, these two
beloved ones ceased not to shed tears ; they were both silent, for they could not speak for excessive grief; these two virgins heard Christ speaking, and saw Him gradually dying : they wept bitterly, for they sorrowed bitterly, for the sword of His sorrow pierced through both their hearts.”
And (i.e., therefore, because Jesus had ordered it) that disciple took her unto his own (sua). Some read suam , his own house, as Nonnus paraphrases it. Bede suggests, for his own mother, or better still, into his own charge. As S. Augustine says, “not into his own hands, but into those kind offices, which he undertook to dispense.” S. John accordingly took her with him to Ephesus, and the Council of Ephesus (cap. xxvi. Synodical Epistle) says that they both for a time lived at Ephesus. ( See Christopher Castro in Hist. Deiparae.)
This then was Christ’s testament, and John was the executor. As S. Ambrose says on Luke xxiii., “ He executed His testament on the cross and John witnesses to it, a fitting witness for so great a testator.” Gather from this also that Joseph was dead. As S. Ambrose says (ibid.), “The wife would not be divorced from her husband, but she who veiled the mystery under the guise of marriage, now, when this mystery was finished, no longer had need of wedlock.” And Epiphanius (Her. lxxviii.) says, “ if she had had a husband, or a home or children of her own, she would have retired to them, and not to a stranger.” See then how poor the Blessed Virgin was, and how devoted to poverty.
Ver. 28. — After this , Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished , that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. After about three hours. It was at the beginning of the crucifixion that He commended His mother to S. John. The scripture was Ps.
lxix. 22. He said this that He might suffer the further torment of being offered the vinegar. As S. Augustine says, “ Ye have not yet done this. Give Me that which ye are yourselves — for ye are full of acidity and bitterness ; give Me vinegar, and not wine.”
Christ thirsted, because He had neither eaten nor drunken since His supper the night before, and He had moreover poured forth all the moisture and blood in His body, by His scourging and crucifixion . And His most bitter pains also caused Him great thirst ; for, as S. Cyril says, “ Sorrows enkindle the heat within us, dry up our moisture from its very depths, and burn us up with fiery heat.” Hence our jaws are dried up, and are parched with thirst. The words of the Psalmist (xxii. 6) were fulfilled in Christ’s person. The Chancellor of Louvain, when he was dying forty years ago, said in my presence, that he never fully understood those words, as he did when he was himself suffering from like drought and thirst, and thence learned how great the thirst of Christ was. Mystically, Christ thirsted for the salvation of souls. See Bellarmine on “The seven words of Christ on the cross.” “ God thirsteth to be thirsted for,” says Nazianzen in Tetrastichisis , in order that we may insatiably love and desire Him, and say with the Psalmist, “ My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God : when shall I come to appear before the presence of God ? ” Ps. xlii. 2.