 Good morning brothers and sisters. So during this season of Lent I have elected to preach on the seven last words of Jesus Christ. These are the seven last phrases or statements that our Lord made from the cross before He died. On Ash Wednesday I preached on the first of those words, Father forgive them they know not what they do. On the first Sunday of Lent last weekend I preached, Amen I say to you today you will be with me in Paradise. And this Sunday, the second Sunday of Lent, I will be preaching on these the third words spoken by our Lord. Woman, behold your son, behold your mother. Before I can give a fuller explanation of these words, I think it's better to set them in their proper context. So I'll read the fuller passage from the Gospel of John chapter 19. Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopis and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son, then he said to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. In interpreting these words correctly we have to recognize that there are three levels, three types of interpretation. All of them true but all of them on different levels. And I want to share them with you in regards to advancing levels. So the most basic historical natural to higher and more profound and greater truths. So the first reason our Lord took such pains to say these words while dying on the cross and truly we know it would have cost him great pains is because he loved his mother. And he wanted to make sure that after he was gone, someone would care for her. It's a very simple thing. St. Joseph had already died. They had no other children, otherwise they would have taken care of her, no other family. So Jesus out of concern for his mom, he chooses one of his disciples, John, the Gospel writer, to care for her in his place. This is the reason our Lord was willing to speak these words in the midst of his agony because he didn't want to leave his mother unattended without someone to care for her. Even though John, the evangelist, the beloved disciple was the closest one to the Lord even though he was truly among the twelve, the best one to care for our Lady, you can imagine the Blessed Mother's reaction to this on a natural level. I don't want another son. I want you. But she knowing that this was the will of the Father that her son die on the cross would have accepted as the will of her son this replacement. And John was really the best, right? He's called the beloved disciple for a good reason. And this leads us to the second level of interpretation because John, who wrote the Gospel from which this story is taken, never calls himself by name. He'll name the rest of the apostles, but he never calls himself by name. He always calls himself the beloved, the beloved disciple, the beloved of the Lord. And it seems quite arrogant, doesn't it? I mean, imagine you're writing a story, a historical account, and instead of referring to yourself by name, which would seem more humble, no, you just give yourself some exalted title. Well, John was actually called this. All of the other apostles called him beloved of the Lord. All of the early church members called him the beloved of the Lord. Everybody knew that he was the beloved. And it's obvious because Jesus chose him to entrust his mother. He would have chosen anyone less. John held a special place in the heart of Jesus. So it's right that he received this title, the beloved, but why would John use it? Again, it seems a bit arrogant, a bit presumptuous of him. But that's not John. We know he is one of the greatest saints of the church. So clearly his choice in using this title in his own Gospel for himself is virtuous, is holy, is humble. So what would be his motivation or his reason? John recognizes in himself and the Lord's love for him, the Lord's love for each of his disciples. You see, to Jesus, all of his disciples are beloved. I can imagine Jesus never went around saying, yes, you're the beloved disciple, the rest of you. No, that was the title the disciples gave John. Jesus didn't do that. So John realizing this in all humility would avoid his own name. It's not about me. It's not about John. It's about each and every beloved disciple. And so when you read the Gospel of John and you hear beloved or beloved disciple, think of yourself. This is what the fathers of the church tell us. John is telling you that that's our Lord speaking to you, interacting with you. That means that from the cross, Jesus wasn't just speaking to John the man to care for his mother while on earth. He was speaking to each one of his beloved disciples throughout the rest of time. He was entrusting to each one of us his mother. From the cross, he says these words, woman, mother, behold your son. And then he says to us, behold your mother. And what does John write immediately after this in the Gospel? And from that hour, the disciple took her into his home. So what is our relationship with the Blessed Mother? I mean, John in a sense didn't have to take her into his home and adopt her as his own mother. He could have just gone and visited her, you know, called her once a week or things like that, right? But for him that wasn't enough. She was now his mother. She was now family. Not by blood. Not by blood. She was now his mother. She was now family. Not by blood, but by baptism. And so he takes her into his home and she dwells with him. And wherever he goes, she goes. The message here for each one of us is this is the way Jesus expects each of his beloved disciples to treat his mother. This is the relationship he expects them to have with her because he would not have suffered so much in making this statement while on the cross. Jesus could have done this before he died on the cross. It's not like he didn't know he was going to die on the cross, right? I mean, anytime the week before he could have gone up to John and say, hey John, by the way, you know, I'm going to be dying soon. I want you to take care of my mother while I'm gone. No, Jesus waited. He waited till he was dying on the cross. Why? Because it wasn't just for his mother's sake that he did this. It was for ours. That's the important lesson we need to take from this. This is why I've said to you before, one of the marks of salvation in the soul of an individual is a true devotion to the blessed mother. That's what the fathers say. Why? Because of passages like this. If you are truly a beloved disciple of the Lord, Mary will live in your home. And like all relationships, you know, they may start off slow and rocky. That's fine. But you work on them. You build and they grow. So don't worry if you don't have a perfect relationship with the blessed mother right now. Just improve it. Obviously, it's not a failure on her part. In regards to the third and the highest mode of interpretation, again, according to the gospel itself, we already know that John can stand for or represent each one of us, any disciple of the Lord. But we also need to know what Mary can represent as a figure, as a type or a sign. In our readings today, we hear from the Old Testament, the famous story of Abraham being willing to sacrifice his son Isaac. We hear in the gospel account of the transfiguration. And one of the things that the fathers of the church always do when meditating on and studying these passages is they look for the signs and the types. Clearly, Abraham is a type of God the Father who is willing to sacrifice his son Isaac, who is a type of Jesus Christ. Makes sense. But the ram that he actually sacrificed is a type of Jesus Christ as well, because Abraham didn't have to sacrifice his son Isaac. So you see how the fathers, they consider these images, these real people and real historical events as having spiritual or theological or more profound significance. So with the gospel, how do they do this same thing? So you have Jesus, this really happened, transfiguration on Mount Tabor. Moses and Elijah appear with him, you've got Peter, James and John. They're on the ground. Well, looking for the types, the symbolism, the more important meaning that's there, not just the historical event. What the fathers realized is that you have present on this mountaintop the entire scriptures, the Old and the New Testament. You have Moses and Elijah with the law and the prophets symbolizing the law and the prophets. You've got Jesus Christ, the Word of God himself, and then you've got some of the writers of the New Testament, the main writers in fact, Peter, James and John. So you've got the whole Bible, the whole Word of God manifested in a mystical vision. It's beautiful. And what we see is the Old and the New are all testifying to Jesus Christ as true God and true man. That's the symbolism. It's profound. And we're supposed to look for these things when we meditate on the Word of God, these deeper and more profound and more important meanings. We see that in regards to our need for a personal relationship with Mary, but we also need to recognize who Mary is a type of. You see, in the Gospel of John, her name, Mary, is actually never used. Not once. She's never called Mary or referred to as Mary. She is referred to either as the mother of Jesus or the mother of the Lord, or when Jesus is talking about her woman. I've preached on this before. It's it's not a slander. Jesus isn't dismissing his mother. It's like, oh woman, leave me alone. It's actually a mark of respect and love. He is honoring her by giving her this title. It's like saying, the woman, woman among women. Remember, Jesus created the first woman and Adam, the first man named the first woman. So what do you see in the Gospel of John? But Jesus, who creates in his mother the perfect woman, calls her like Adam woman. He names her woman. So the father's realized Mary is the new Eve. Christ is the new Adam, right? Mary is the new Eve. In that she is the new Eve. Obviously, she doesn't have her own personal name of Mary because she's symbolizing something greater, something more. What's greater than Mary? She's greater than any of us, greater than all of the saints combined. What could be greater than Mary? What could she be a type of? The fathers tell us that the church is greater than Mary. Because the church is, in its fullness, the body of Christ. So Mary being a type of the church, she models in herself the church. So if this is the case, then what is Jesus doing from the cross? These words that he spoke, woman, behold your son, son, behold your mother. He was speaking to his church and his followers. He was saying, you want to be my disciples? Your mother must be the church. And he was speaking to the church, your role now, for whom I have died, she whom I have loved above all others, is to care for my sons. From the cross, Jesus is teaching us this most profound truth, that his love for his disciples and his church are inseparable. There are no disciples of Christ apart from his church. There is no church apart from his disciples. Like any family, they come together or not at all. And in these mysteries as we meditate upon them, what we see is that there's always more. There's always more in your prayer and meditation. You can read over these passages a thousand, thousand times and still not get the deeper meanings and the roots. Why? Well, most of us have to be taught these things. I didn't make this stuff up. I stole it from the fathers. But I share it with you so that not only it can bear fruit in your own prayer and meditation, but then when you're studying the word, you yourselves can look for the deeper meanings. You can ask the Holy Spirit, what is here that I'm missing? What does the Lord want to say to me that I can't read on my own? And you'll find such profound and beautiful truths that the Word of God speaks to you, not only to direct you in your faith and in following Him, but also to console you in times of difficulty. I mean, imagine knowing that our Lord from the cross entrusted you to His own mother in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.