This was originally written during Lent as a meditation reflection for the lead-up to Easter. I have discerned the need to publish it here to demonstrate how crucial the insights and graces we receive during Lent actually are in relation to how we comprehend the experience and meaning of Easter.

Today, Saturday 11th March I am compelled to write yet again of the Lenten meditations which I am currently immersing myself in for this year’s Lenten period. Yesterday, I recorded my thoughts and feelings about the 1st day of reflection in the marvellous 40-day contemplative companion 40 Days at the Foot of the Cross* by Fr John Paul Thomas. Today I am up to the 2nd day and upon starting out I saw Blessed Mother clasping the bloodied feet of her dying Son as she stood gazing upon Him, when she cried out rather desperately but whisperingly her heartfelt prayer: My Son, do not give up…This instance of being made aware of this was only very momentary. It seems strange that the Mother of God would be saying to her Son, the very Son of God, Who was dying in agony for our sakes to not give up….After all He is God.

But during this time of contemplating what Our Blessed Mother went through during this time of trial in her life, we are being asked to immerse ourselves in the humanity of their, Mary and Jesus’ felial relationship, and precisely how this humanity is so very close to our own hearts. We also must remember that during the Agony in the Garden, Jesus had moments of wanting to throw it all in….He was beguiled under a temptation of sorts perhaps and His inner sorrow, we are told, was so great that He sweated blood! We are also told that an Angel was sent from Heaven to comfort Him. So from this then, it is clear that even though Jesus is God, the reality of His incarnation meant that He was smitten with all the human inner experiences we all to one degree or another grapple with and this includes desperation and a sense that perhaps giving up on perservering with the sacred task is somehow ‘better’….Think on how He said to His Father during the time at Gethsemani that if His Father could take away the Cup then please do so but if it be His Holy will not to take it away, then let it be done according to His Holy will.

And so it was at points a serious dilemma, this whole Passion saga for the One Who was predestined to carry it out to completion. And the fact that in our meditation today, it says of Mary that “She stood, with the utmost strength, faithfully fulfilling a mother’s love until the end”. This gives us an indication as to what this dedication to that fulfillment looked like. In her desire to comfort and be there in the most intimately caring way she could meant that it was part of her natural inclination to support her Son in His most arduous hour of trial. Most likely we can surmise that she would have been saying this to Him at the point at which the entire sin of the world engulfed Him at the 9th hour. At this point we are reminded by the words of Fr John Paul Thomas in the meditation that “Only a heart that loved with perfection could be so strong”. And that was just it – so strong was the immaculate nature of her love that it did not buckle under when she witnessed the weight of the whole world’s sin engulf her Son upon the Cross.

And so, here too we witness the miraculous power of authentic love as shown by Mary, once again as she faced the overwhelming and at one at the same time harrowing Passion of her Son’s victory in expiating our collective sin. Here, she too, as His mother shares transcendantly in the fait accompli of her Son – the Sign that was to be contradicted – contradicted by what? By none other than the world’s dim estimation of what is indeed possible by God’s standards. So instead of choosing the Fire of Divine Love as offered to them in Sirach 15 : 16-17, and the consequential immediacy of life that flows from that, they, some of the most stiff-necked of God’s entire sheepfold, through putting the Son of Man to death chose for their immediate futures the waters of death, likened unto the great waters that engulfed the world at the time of the Flood which God sent as divine justice, and of course the waters that closed in upon the Egyptians as they pursued the children of Israel crossing over the Red Sea. Yes, in this instance in a sense it is water of a symbolic type, as too, we all get our souls plunged into such water at baptism. And so for them also – even the most stubborn-willed – as indeed is Our Lord’s holy will for the whole world, that through the waters of baptism, ALL will be saved. Such is the ultimate meaning rendered in St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans 5 : 8 that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. But our own share in His death and triumph over death is still a work in progress.

In Sirach, we hear God’s exhortation that their salvation could very well be immediate if only the people at that time would choose it this way for themselves, by chosing the Fire of the Holy Spirit first off. But like their decisions of old, as stubborn as they were, Joshua for example could not persuade them against the allurement of a human ruler – they wanted to follow the “other nations”, so God let them have their way to teach them a lesson, albeit a long-winded one, and one that was hoped to be finally learnt by all of Israel with the Incarnation of God’s only Son. However, even that turned out to be another Sign to be contradicted hence we see the need for them having to learn through the waters of baptism once more, as made plain by Our Lord through His own baptism in the Jordan and fulfilled in unrivalable completion on Calvary. And perhaps it is most fitting here to think for a moment on the not so uncanny timeliness in Thomas Merton naming a work of his such: The Waters of Contradiction.

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Endnotes:

* Available on amazon.com or through the My Catholic Life app under Lenten & Easter resources.