Remember the wedding feast at Cana. Mary had said to the waiters: “Do whatever he tells you.” John’s Gospel makes clear the intimacy and trust of mother and son!

Now Mary stands at the foot of the cross. She is with Mary Magdalene, Mary Cleopas and John the disciple. They stand in the midst of tragedy and terror, and their courage appears to have been extraordinary.

There is a mystical link between the first sign at Cana and this culminating sign at Calvary. There, Jesus had transformed water into wine; here he transforms injustice , hatred and cruelty into an act of sacrificial love.

The soldier will soon pierce the side of Jesus allowing blood and water to pour forth. In an eternal act of obedience, Jesus will transform injustice, pain and death into a sacrament of love! The wedding feast at Cana has reached its ultimate end, a consummated marriage between God and humankind.

At Cana Jesus had said to his mother, “My hour has not yet come.” But at Calvary the hour has come, the “hour for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

This is Mary’s hour too. She is the courageous woman and the true disciple. She is faithful to her son and to her own vow: “Be it done unto me according to your will.”

Jesus says to her, “behold your son.” And to John, and John’s church, “Behold your mother.”

Woman