WHO WOULD HURT HIS MUM ?
The dead body of Jesus, the son of Mary, hung lifeless, dirty and bloody. That corpse is now the property of the vultures, the wild animals that would roam in the night to feast on the corpses of the criminals. According to the historian Josephus Flavius the Romans once crucified 6,000 at one go.
But was Jesus a criminal? If, being an altruist; loving and helping others, feeding people, curing the sick and raising from the death, and performing other works of mercy, are considered as criminal acts … I prefer to be judged and considered by the world as being a criminal. This is no surprise, not only in this day and age, but it has been like that since the fall of man.
No, in this case, the dead body belonged to Mary, His mother, who alone could say: “This my Body, this is my Blood.” We read in the Gospel that the ‘latecomer’, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea anointed the body of Jesus with a hundred pounds of myrrh and spices, and wound it with pure linen. Notwithstanding what the ‘world’ decrees, Jesus was given a royal treatment in the embalming. Hundred pounds of myrrh was normally reserved for royalties and not for ordinary folk.
These two ‘secret disciples’ must have realized who really Jesus was. This, at least must have been of some comfort to Mary His mother. Whatever these two members of the Sanhedrin did, was a sign of their admiration and love for their ‘new master’. Though, it must be said, all this was not done out of faith in His Resurrection and Life.
When the lifeless body of Christ was taken down from the cross, He was laid in the arms of His Blessed Mother. Just try and imagine the scene. No artist, no writer, author, poet or sculptor can possibly portray what Mary felt in those few minutes when she felt the dead body of her baby in her arms. Who knows what thoughts went through her head, what recollections of His babyhood of His ‘talia’.
It’s too crude, too stark, too cruel to try and imagine the emotions of that poor mother with her Son lying lifeless in her arms. Michelangelo sculpted the Pieta, now in the Vatican, showing a young mother holding her Son. But, the artist wanted to portray Mary as the ever young and chaste Mother, free from sin. BUT, she was human. Only God knows what she went through. No statue or painting of Our Lady of Sorrows can ever do justice to Mary, and to what she went through.
Imagine Mary staring at her Son’s head, pierced with thorns and recollecting the baby curls He once had, His face torn, bloodied full of spit and dirt, that same face which once was pink, smelling of baby-flesh, his hands, now torn and pierced with nails … too crude to recollect. And yet, who is to blame for all this? I accuse the Scribes, the Pharisees, the priests, the Sadducees, the mad mob, Pilate, Herod and the rest.
BUT, I was once a Pharisee, a Scribe, one of the mob, a Judas Iscariot, a Peter … yes, I’m to blame as much as they are. Forgive me, Mary, I don’t deserve to call you Mother, forgive me. In your arms I see aN image of myself full of filth, dirt, wounds, blood and spit… the consequence of sin.
The dead body of Jesus, the son of Mary, hung lifeless, dirty and bloody. That corpse is now the property of the vultures, the wild animals that would roam in the night to feast on the corpses of the criminals. According to the historian Josephus Flavius the Romans once crucified 6,000 at one go.
But was Jesus a criminal? If, being an altruist; loving and helping others, feeding people, curing the sick and raising from the death, and performing other works of mercy, are considered as criminal acts … I prefer to be judged and considered by the world as being a criminal. This is no surprise, not only in this day and age, but it has been like that since the fall of man.
No, in this case, the dead body belonged to Mary, His mother, who alone could say: “This my Body, this is my Blood.” We read in the Gospel that the ‘latecomer’, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea anointed the body of Jesus with a hundred pounds of myrrh and spices, and wound it with pure linen. Notwithstanding what the ‘world’ decrees, Jesus was given a royal treatment in the embalming. Hundred pounds of myrrh was normally reserved for royalties and not for ordinary folk.
These two ‘secret disciples’ must have realized who really Jesus was. This, at least must have been of some comfort to Mary His mother. Whatever these two members of the Sanhedrin did, was a sign of their admiration and love for their ‘new master’. Though, it must be said, all this was not done out of faith in His Resurrection and Life.
When the lifeless body of Christ was taken down from the cross, He was laid in the arms of His Blessed Mother. Just try and imagine the scene. No artist, no writer, author, poet or sculptor can possibly portray what Mary felt in those few minutes when she felt the dead body of her baby in her arms. Who knows what thoughts went through her head, what recollections of His babyhood of His ‘talia’.
It’s too crude, too stark, too cruel to try and imagine the emotions of that poor mother with her Son lying lifeless in her arms. Michelangelo sculpted the Pieta, now in the Vatican, showing a young mother holding her Son. But, the artist wanted to portray Mary as the ever young and chaste Mother, free from sin. BUT, she was human. Only God knows what she went through. No statue or painting of Our Lady of Sorrows can ever do justice to Mary, and to what she went through.
Imagine Mary staring at her Son’s head, pierced with thorns and recollecting the baby curls He once had, His face torn, bloodied full of spit and dirt, that same face which once was pink, smelling of baby-flesh, his hands, now torn and pierced with nails … too crude to recollect. And yet, who is to blame for all this? I accuse the Scribes, the Pharisees, the priests, the Sadducees, the mad mob, Pilate, Herod and the rest.
BUT, I was once a Pharisee, a Scribe, one of the mob, a Judas Iscariot, a Peter … yes, I’m to blame as much as they are. Forgive me, Mary, I don’t deserve to call you Mother, forgive me. In your arms I see aN image of myself full of filth, dirt, wounds, blood and spit… the consequence of sin.
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