Third Word from the Cross: Mary Walks Through History

National Catholic Register, 31 March 2026

‘Woman, behold your Son. Behold your Mother.’

Editor’s note: Father Raymond J. de Souza recorded meditations on the Seven Last Words at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Ogdensburg, New York. They will air on EWTN on Good Friday at 1 p.m. (EDT). It will also be available at ewtn.com and EWTN+. Through Good Friday, those meditations will be published at the Register.

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“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 is the sweetest Word. Jesus speaks to and about Mary, Mother of God, his Mother and our Mother. To her is entrusted St. John, and with him the entire Church.

In the historical panels here, there are three that are not about American history. Under the window of the Wedding at Cana, there are windows of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Lourdes. At Cana, Mary tells the servants regarding Jesus: “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5).

Those are her final words recorded in the Gospels, but she does not then withdraw entirely. She returns on the Via Dolorosa, when the disciples have fled, and in the Upper Room after the Ascension, when the disciples are afraid. She continues to accompany the Church throughout history, as she accompanied St. John, the beloved disciple.

The historical windows tell the story of God’s Providence in history, and the Marian apparitions are evidence that he continues to intervene with the most powerful of all intercessors, the Mother of God.

We are living now with a heightened sense of salvation history. Many of us have vivid memories of the Great Jubilee of 2000, with St. John Paul the Great leading us across the threshold of the third Christian millennium. We are now only seven years removed from the Greater Jubilee of 2033 — the 2,000th anniversary of the Redemption, of the Resurrection, of the Ascension, of the Great Commission, of Pentecost.

Between the Great Jubilee 2000 and the Greater Jubilee 2033, we have been accompanied by significant Marian anniversaries. In 2008 we marked 150 years since the apparitions at Lourdes. In 2017, the centennial of the apparitions at Fatima. In 2031, it will be the mother of all Marian jubilees, 500 years since Our Lady appeared at Guadalupe.

There are lesser-known Marian apparitions too, including an officially approved apparition in the United States, to Adele Brise in Champion, Wisconsin, in 1859 — just one year after Lourdes. Mary walks through the history the Church, comforting her in sorrow, sustaining her in prayer, reminding her always:

“Do whatever he tells you.”

At Cana, Jesus speaks to his mother about “my hour.” That hour came most fully on Good Friday, and that hour will be lifted up at the Greater Jubilee 2033.

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