St. Robert Bellarmine: The Seven Words on the Cross

[Stone]

CHAPTER VIII. The literal explanation of the third Word “Behold thy Mother: Behold thy Son.”

The last of the three words, which have special reference to charity for one’s neighbour, is, “Behold thy Mother: Behold thy son.”[1] But before we explain the meaning of this word we must dwell a little on the preceding passage of St. John’s Gospel. “Now there stood by the Cross of Jesus His Mother, and His Mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus, therefore, saw His Mother, and the disciple standing by, whom He loved, He saith unto His Mother: Woman, behold thy son! Then saith He to the disciple: Behold thy Mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own.” Two out of the three Marys that stood near the Cross are known, namely, Mary, the Mother of our Lord, and Mary Magdalene. About Mary, the wife of Cleophas, there is some doubt; some suppose her to have been the daughter of St. Anne, who had three daughters, to wit, Mary, the Mother of Christ, Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Salome. But this opinion is almost exploded. For, in the first place, we cannot suppose three sisters to be called by the same name. Moreover, we know that many pious and erudite men maintain that our Blessed Lady was St. Anne’s only child; and there is no other Mary Salome mentioned in the Gospels. For where St. Mark[2] says that “Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James, and Salome, had brought sweet spices,” the word Salome is not in the genitive case, as if he wished to say Mary, the mother of Salome, as just before he said Mary, the mother of James, but it is of the nominative case and of the feminine gender, as is clear from the Greek version, where the word is written [Salome]. Moreover, this Mary Salome was the wife of Zebedee,[3] and the mother of the Apostles, St. James and St. John, as we learn from the two Evangelists, St. Matthew and St. Mark,[4] just as Mary, the mother of James was the wife of Cleophas, and the mother of St. James the Less and St. Jude. Wherefore the true interpretation is this, that Mary, the wife of Cleophas, was called the sister of the Blessed Virgin because Cleophas was the brother of St. Joseph, the Spouse of the Blessed Virgin, and the wives of two brothers have a right to call themselves and be called sisters For the same reason St. James the Less is called the brother of our Lord, although he was only His cousin, since he was the son of Cleophas, who, we have said, was the brother of St. Joseph. Eusebius gives us this account in his ecclesiastical history, and he quotes, as a trustworthy authority, Hegesippus, a contemporary of the Apostles. We have also St. Jerome’s authority for the same interpretation, as we may gather from his work against Helvidius.

There is also an apparent disagreement in the Gospel narratives, which it would be well briefly to dwell upon. St. John says that these three women stood near the Cross of our Lord, whereas both St. Mark[5] and St. Luke[6] say they were afar off. St. Austin in his third book on the Harmony of the Gospels, makes the three texts harmonize in this way. These holy women may be said to have been both a long way from the Cross, and near the Cross. They were a long way from the Cross in reference to the soldiers and executioners, who were in such close proximity to the Cross as to touch it, but they were sufficiently near the Cross to hear the words of our Lord, which the crowd of spectators who were the furthest of all removed, could not hear. We may also explain the texts thus. During the actual nailing of our Lord to the Cross, the concourse of soldiers and people kept the holy women at a distance, but as soon as the Cross was fixed in the ground many of the Jews returned to the city, and then the three women and St. John drew nearer. This explanation does away with the difficulty as to the reason why the Blessed Virgin and St. John applied to themselves the words, “Behold thy Son; Behold thy Mother,” when so many others were present, and Christ addressed neither His Mother nor His disciple by name. The real answer to this objection is that the three women and St. John were standing so near the Cross as to enable our Lord to designate by His looks the persons whom He was addressing. Besides, the words were evidently spoken to His personal friends, and not to strangers. And amongst His personal friends who were on the spot there was no other man to whom he could say, “Behold thy Mother,” except St. John, and there was no other woman who would be rendered childless by His death except His Virgin Mother. Wherefore He said to His Mother: “Behold thy Son,” and to His disciple, ” Behold thy Mother.” Now this is the literal meaning of these words: I indeed am on the point of passing from this world to the bosom of My Heavenly Father, and since I am fully aware that you My Mother, have neither parents, nor a husband, nor brothers, nor sisters, in order not to leave you utterly destitute of human succour, I commend you to the care of My most beloved disciple John: he will act towards you as a son, and you will act towards him as a Mother. And this counsel or command of Christ, which showed Him to be so mindful of others, was alike welcome to both parties, and both we may believe to have bowed their heads in token of their acquiescence, for St. John says of himself; “And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own,” that is, St. John immediately obeyed our Lord, and reckoned the Blessed Virgin, together with his now aged parents Zebedee and Salome amongst the persons for whom it was his duty to care and provide.

There still remains another question which may be asked. St. John was one of those who had said;[7] “Behold we have forsaken all, and followed Thee; what shall we have therefore?” And among the things which they had abandoned, our Lord enumerates father and mother, brothers and sisters, house and lands; and St. Matthew, when speaking of St. John and his brother St. James, said: “And they immediately left their nets and their father and followed Him.”[8] Whence comes it then that he who had left one mother for the sake of Christ, should be told by our Lord to look upon the Blessed Virgin in the light of a Mother? We have not far to go for an answer. When the Apostles followed Christ they left their father and mother, in so far as they might be an impediment to their evangelical life, and inasmuch, as any worldly advantage and carnal pleasure might be derived from their presence. But they did not forego that solicitude which a man is justly bound to show for his parents or his children, if they want either his direction or his assistance. Whence some spiritual writers affirm that that son cannot enter a religious order, whose father is either so stricken with age, or oppressed with poverty as to be unable to live without his aid. And as St. John left his father and mother when they stood not in need of him, so when Christ ordered him to take care of and provide for His Virgin Mother, she was destitute of all human succour. God indeed, without any assistance from man, might have provided His Mother with all things necessary by the ministry of angels, just as they ministered to Christ Himself in the desert: but He wished St. John to do this in order that whilst the Apostle took care of the Virgin, she might honour and help the Apostle. For God sent Elias to the assistance of a poor widow, not that He could not have supported her by means of a raven, as He had done before, but in order, as St. Austin observes, that the prophet might bless her. Wherefore it pleased our Lord to intrust His Mother to the care of St. John for the twofold purpose of bestowing a blessing upon him, and to prove that he above all the rest was His beloved disciple. For truly in this transfer of His Mother was fulfilled that text: ” Every one that hath forsaken father or mother shall receive a hundred-fold, and shall inherit life everlasting.”[9] For certainly he received a hundred-fold, who leaving his mother, the wife of a fisherman, received as a mother, the Mother of the Creator, the Queen of the world, who was full of grace, blessed among women, and shortly to be raised above all the choirs of angels in the heavenly kingdom.


ENDNOTES

1. St. John xix. 26, 27.
2. St. Mark xvi. 1.
3. St. Matt. xxvii. 56.
4. St. Mark xv. 40.
5. St. Mark xv. 40.
6. St. Luke xxiii. 49.
7. St. Matt. xix. 27.
8. St. Matt. iv. 22.
9. St. Matt. xix. 29.