It is now the evening of Good Friday, and Mary is sitting at the foot of
the cross with her dead Son upon her lap. It is here that mourners for
future generations will come to find rest and peace. Here the widow, the
orphan, and the lonely will find how good a thing it is to have their
hearts crushed with sorrow, because here they will find the loving arms of
their new Mother Mary around them, and through their grief they will see
God. But now the time has come when Mary must give up her treasure. So
giving the signal to Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, they lift the body
of the dead Creator and move towards the garden tomb. Mary arranges
everything; she adjusts the winding‐sheet, and then takes her last look on
the lifeless body of Jesus. “Oh, look and see if there be any sorrow like
unto my sorrow!” Then her adopted son, John, comes to her, drawing her
away, for she is half‐dead with the grief and anguish of the past night
and day. Through the same gate by which she had left the city of Jerusalem
in the morning, she re‐entered it that night. Poor Jerusalem, that city of
God, how often had Our Lord yearned and wept over it, longing to gather
those chosen ones to Himself! But no, they had rejected Him, and now their
cup of iniquity is filled. They have crucified their King; their pavements
are stained with His blood. Mary knows all this, still there is no room in
her heart for bitterness. Oh, what a contrast to our spirit of revenge,
sometimes for even a fancied wrong. We learn from this dolor of Mary that
there is no darkness like the darkness of a world without Jesus, and if
His absence is caused by our own fault, our own sin, then it is the
greatest of sorrows. O Mary, my Mother, keep us ever by thy side at the
foot of the cross! so that remembering all that thou hast suffered, we
will gladly accept all the sorrows that may come. Amen.
Prayer.
O Virgin Mother most sorrowful, I detest my sins because they have
offended God, and caused thee so much pain! I am sorry for them, and will
be sorry for them as long as I live, and according to the best of my power
will do penance for them. Forgive me, dear Lord, for Thy mercy’s sake;
pardon me all that is past, and be Thou my keeper for the time to come,
that I may nevermore offend Thee. Amen.
Fifteenth Day. Help of Christians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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