The 7 Seven Last Words and the Nicene Creed: ‘Behold, Your Son’; ‘Behold, Your Mother’

National Catholic Register, 15 April 2025

The third of Christ’s ‘Seven Last Words From the Cross’ reveals the feminine and maternal dimension of the mystery of salvation.

“Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, 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 to his own home” (John 19:25-27).

The third word from the cross reveals the feminine and maternal dimension of the mystery of salvation.

Our Blessed Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Sorrows, is present at the foot of the cross and addressed by her Son, Jesus, hanging before her eyes. He calls her “woman,” and it reminds us of that passage from the second chapter of St. John’s Gospel. The third word comes from John 19. But in John 2, we’re told that there’s a wedding at Cana and the mother of Jesus was invited. And because she was invited, Jesus and his disciples also went along.

At the cross, it is different. Mary is there because Jesus was invited. It was a different kind of invitation, an invitation from the Father. Jesus accepts it: Your will, not mine, be done.

There is the wedding at Cana and the wedding at Calvary. It is a different kind of wedding, a strange kind of wedding. There are a few witnesses. The best man is there — John, the beloved friend of Jesus. There are no rings upon the finger, but nails through the hands.

There on the cross, Jesus is giving his body for the Church. We speak about the bridegroom and the bride: Jesus, the Bridegroom, the Church as his Bride. And the mother of Jesus is there. At Cana, the wine ran out, and the water became wine. At Calvary, the water and blood run out of the side of Jesus.

The wine became blood at the Last Supper. Now, the water and the blood flow from the cross. At that wedding in Cana, the Bridegroom promised to give his heart to his Bride. Jesus gives his heart, too. You have ravished my heart (Song of Songs 4:9).

The last time that Mary is recorded speaking in the Gospels is at the wedding in Cana. She speaks often enough in the infancy of Jesus. When Jesus’ public life commences, she does not say very much at all. In fact, she is not obviously or, evidently, present. At Cana, she tells Jesus that the bridal couple needs saving — or, at least, the reception needs saving. He addresses her, “Woman.” He says mysteriously, “Woman, my hour has not yet come.”

Now, the hour has come. And Mary is there.

He speaks a second time. First, “Woman, behold your son,” and then he says to the disciple, to St. John, “Behold, your mother.”

Jesus gives Mary two titles from the cross: “Woman” and “Mother.” Those titles go back to the beginning, much farther back than the wedding at Galilee. They go back to Genesis. After the Fall, when the Lord God appears in the garden to Adam and Eve, he catalogs for them the consequences of the Fall — the toil, the disharmony and the division. Adam listens to all the things that will befall him, that will afflict Eve.

His response is, surprisingly, a hopeful one, because he hears in the midst of all that his wife, then without a name, is going to bear children. Although the Lord God tells her that it will be in the pain of labor that these children will come forth, Adam does not focus on that; maybe because he is a man, and those pains are not going to be his. Or maybe because he sees, even amid the Fall, that there is good news. Adam therefore called his wife Eve, that she would be the “mother of all the living.”

Adam celebrated the promise of life and motherhood. So it is on the cross, where this son of Adam speaks again of life and motherhood. Behold, your mother!

Mary is to be the mother of all the living in a different way. St. John stands beside Mary in the place of all disciples, of every time and place. If he stands in for all the disciples, he stands in the place of the Church. Mary is to be the mother of all the living, the mother of all disciples, the mother of the Church.

As in Genesis, when all appears to have been lost, there is good news. The Son of God is hanging on the cross and speaks of motherhood, which is to speak of life.

And from that hour, the disciple took her into his home. John does as Adam did, taking Eve into his home. John does as Joseph did. Joseph was told by the angel, “Do not be afraid to take Mary into your home.” Joseph did so. Now, that mission given to St. Joseph is given to St. John. But St. John is not Mary’s husband — he is now her son.

We have a lesson here, written into nature and elevated to the supernatural, that a woman has a husband. From that husband, and from that marriage, that nuptial union, comes the son.

But the status of a woman as a wife, of having a husband, is a transitory one. Jesus tells us that marriage is for this world (Matthew 22:30), and in heaven there is no marriage or giving in marriage. We do not know exactly what the relationship of a married couple is in heaven. Obviously, there must be something distinctive about their relationship, but they are not married, for Jesus tells us so — as does the marriage ritual, which speaks of marriage until “death do us part.”

There are mothers in heaven, starting with Mary. To be a mother is a permanent relationship. Mary had a husband, as many women do. But now she is going to be cared for by her son, a relationship that endures into eternity. Fatherhood belongs to eternity, even before creation, in the persons of the blessed Trinity. In the Blessed Mother, motherhood is inserted analogously into eternity. So too have Christian disciples across the centuries; there are statues and images of Mary in homes in every part of the earth.

Mary appears in the Scriptures when others don’t. And when others are present, Mary seems to fade away. At the Visitation, when her cousin Elizabeth is in seclusion, having conceived a child in her old age, Mary goes to be with her while she is hidden. When the time comes for John the Baptist to be born, and everybody is gathered around, Mary has departed.

After the Ascension, when the apostles return and lock themselves in the room, not knowing what exactly will happen, Mary joins them and prays with them. The day of Pentecost comes, and she is there with them. When they go out and preach, as St. Peter does, in his great Pentecost sermon, Mary seems to not be present. She comes when she is needed, when others are not present.

It's a lesson for our own lives of discipleship. When we feel alone, we know that that is precisely when we can be sure that the Blessed Virgin Mary is with us.

We see that on the Way of the Cross, the Via Crucis. Most have fled. Mary is there. During the Via Crucis, the Stations of the Cross, we draw close to Mary as she draws close to her Son. The Via Crucis begins with the judgment and condemnation, the carrying of the cross and the first time Jesus falls. It appears that he is alone.

Then Jesus meets his afflicted mother. His mother comes in the Fourth Station, and, immediately, things begin to change. Those who are needed come to help him. Mary comes at the Fourth Station and sees what is needed.

At the Fifth Station, Simon of Cyrene comes to help Jesus carry the cross. Then comes Veronica, at the Sixth Station, to comfort him. Then come the holy women at the Eighth Station, weeping and offering consolation. John and Mary Magdalene stand with her at the 11th Station, as Jesus is nailed to the cross. After the Crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea comes at the 13th Station to take the body of Jesus down and place it in her loving arms. Finally, Nicodemus, at the 14th Station, brings what is necessary to prepare Jesus for burial. Mary comes when others flee, and because Mary comes, others come. She appears when she is needed.

Mary appears at a central place in the Nicene Creed. The creed begins with the divinity of God, of the Father, and the divinity of Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son. Then:

For us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.

For our salvation, he comes down. But how can he come down? Furthermore, how could he suffer and die and be crucified under Pontius Pilate? How could he do any of that as God? He couldn’t. God can’t.

He must become incarnate to accomplish that for our salvation. The Incarnation is the link between the divinity that will come to save us and the humanity through which he will save us. The Son of God cannot die for us, but the Son of Mary can. Thus, Mary in the creed protects both the humanity and divinity of Christ.

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