1 Samuel 1:21-28; St John 19:23-27
“Seven Last Words of Jesus” (3)
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The eternal and unchangeable will of the holy God and just Judge is that you truly honor your parents and other authorities. That you serve and obey them, love and cherish them as blessed and inestimable gifts next in line only to God Himself.
But how often have you given little consideration to their authority? Have you refused them true obedience from the heart? Do you ridicule their weaknesses? Do you forgo earnest prayer that the Lord God would preserve and keep them? That if unconverted, He would, by His Word and Spirit, turn their hearts that they might believe and live? Do you harbor anger against those to whom you ought to submit yourself completely and patiently?
No matter your age, dear children, your parents are given you by God and stand in His place. However lowly, poor, frail, and strange they may be, nevertheless they are the father and mother bestowed upon you by God, who has created and ordained parenthood. Therefore, if you wish to serve God with truly good works, look no further than this commandment, Honor your father and your mother that it may go well with you and you may live long in the land. Here the holy God has set up His own place on earth, within the vocation of parents, and has established this foundation of all society and government, the family, by His Word and command.
So mightily and with such exceeding honor, does our Lord God bestow upon the office of parent and the vocation of family, that His own beloved Son did not spurn the womb of the Virgin Mary, but was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was born unto an earthly mother. To her and His guardian, St Joseph, He willingly, in patience and humility, faithfully submitted.
Not for His own sake, for He came to be about His Father’s business in His Father’s house; to be the atoning Sacrifice for sin. But entirely for yours, does the sole begotten Son of the Father choose to live with the walls of a broken and sinful family. Precisely because He is the Seed of the Woman does the eternal Son reside within a family, redeeming this earthly estate and honoring it as established and ordained by God.
In this way, Jesus not only shares in the flesh and blood of His Virgin Mother, but He likewise shares in the flesh and blood of all mankind, the entire human family. And in submitting Himself to the the parental authority of His earthly mother and adoptive father, He likewise submits Himself to the will of His heavenly Father and in perfect obedience, voluntarily took upon Himself the curse and consequence of sin, namely death.
Behold, then, beloved, in misery and pain, the Virgin’s Son, who for your disobedience and disconnect with your parents, though given by God, submits to the Virgin Mary and St Joseph, and even in death, cares for and provides a home for His beloved Mother. This is her little Boy, whom she had carried and delivered, nursed and diapered, and taught so many things over the years, as He grew and learned. What games had they played? What smiles had He given her? What bedtime stories and nap time cuddles had they shared? And shall He now be so cruelly put to death before her very eyes, without touching her heart and soul at their core?
The death of a child is surely one of the most difficult and painful sorrows that anyone can ever suffer. It hardly matters whether that child is three, or thirteen, or thirty-three, or in the first or third trimester in the womb. To lose a child is to be confronted with the absolute and utter futility of our mortal life; of our human flesh under the curse of sin and death.
It is precisely this curse, this pain and death, that our Lord Christ willingly bears in His flesh born the Virgin Mary. In His Body, given mortal life from her, Jesus carries all the sins and sorrows of the whole world. He dies, not for the sins of His own, for He has none, but for the sins of all His mortal fathers and mothers, and for all their sinful mortal children, for all His brothers and sisters in the flesh. He dies for you and for your sins. Thus does St Mary grieve her Son.
For though she was once spared this atrocity several decades before, when, at the behest of the angelic dream given to St Joseph, the Holy Family fled to Egypt ahead of Herod’s murderous rage, she now joins Rachel in weeping for her Child. Like Israel of old, her “Joseph” has been sold for the price of a slave, His coat is stained with blood, some vicious beast has taken His life, and her own soul is pierced as well, as Simeon had prophesied.
What are we to do with grief like that? She had learned to let Him go early in His life. Already in the Temple at twelve years old she was reminded that He was not her’s, not really. No child every really is. Your children are not your own. Especially after having received the heavenly adoption of Holy Baptism. They are marked with the Name of the Holy Trinity and traced with the sign of the Holy Cross of Christ, to whom they belong. There, from the birth waters of the font, our Father in heaven has made them His own, snatching them from the jaws of the Evil One. But He has placed them back into your care, to love and admonish, to raise in the fear and instruction of the Lord.
It is no different for the Christ Child. Like Hannah giving her dear son, Samuel, into the care and keeping of the Lord at His Temple, St Mary, whose body once held the Temple made without hands, has already given her Son to the Lord. He now goes to His Father by way of His Cross and Passion, and in filial obedience and tender love, our Lord Christ, St Mary’s Son, commends the care of His dear Mother into the hands of His beloved disciple, St John. Woman, behold your son! Behold, your mother! And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
Here then, beloved, is not only your example of filial piety, but here is St Mary’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, fulfilling the Fourth Commandment, of you. The Son of God cares for His Mother. He entrusts her to a good man who provides for her a house and home. The Lord also gives her another son in this man, the beloved disciple, and he shall honor her as a Mother in Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus does not afflict or grieve the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve willingly. He is not nonchalant about your pain. He bears it in His own Body, smitten with the ravages of the Fall on your behalf, nailed to the accursed Tree, so that He might make men His again. So that He can raise every mother’s son and daughter, every child of Adam and Eve, in His own flesh and blood.
What He does for Mother Mary, He does for you, dear children. The same Lord Jesus provides for you in your bereavement and mourning. He does care for the widow and the orphan. He hears your cries and shall not leave you forsaken. He has given Himself for you, and He shall not withhold His goodness from you.
Look around you, even here. These are your mothers and your sons, your sisters and daughters and fathers and brothers in Christ. Ought you not love them and they love you in the mercy and compassion of your dear Lord Jesus? You are not helpless or alone. You are not without a home and a family. And if you find no need in yourself, then behold the needs of your neighbors around you here and elsewhere and help them.
Who among you has had a miscarriage and now mourns in silent sorrow? Whose parents are ill and dying? Whose job is in danger? Who is overwhelmed and struggling to manage, to get by? Who is drowning in depression and despair?
Behold, dear ones, you stand at the foot of the Cross, awaiting the Word of the Lord. Take heart, for He has not forgotten you. You are the disciples whom Jesus loves. And not only has He given you to comfort and care for your brothers and sisters in His Name, for widows and orphans in distress, but He has also laid you upon the bosom of His Church, to find in her your Mother.
From her font, by the Word and Spirit, you have been conceived and born again as a son of God in Christ. He clothes you with His blood stained garment; His robe of righteousness. And at her festal board, the Son of Mary is still given in the same flesh and blood, like yours, in which He was born for you, lived and died for you, in which He has risen from the dead for you, and lives and reigns forever at the right hand of His God and Father.
He has made you a member of His Bride, the Church, the Mother of all the living. He has given you a place here in the home of all His beloved disciples, even as He has prepared a place for you, a house and home, with Himself in heaven.
In the Name of the Father + and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Seven Last Words of Jesus” (3)
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The eternal and unchangeable will of the holy God and just Judge is that you truly honor your parents and other authorities. That you serve and obey them, love and cherish them as blessed and inestimable gifts next in line only to God Himself.
But how often have you given little consideration to their authority? Have you refused them true obedience from the heart? Do you ridicule their weaknesses? Do you forgo earnest prayer that the Lord God would preserve and keep them? That if unconverted, He would, by His Word and Spirit, turn their hearts that they might believe and live? Do you harbor anger against those to whom you ought to submit yourself completely and patiently?
No matter your age, dear children, your parents are given you by God and stand in His place. However lowly, poor, frail, and strange they may be, nevertheless they are the father and mother bestowed upon you by God, who has created and ordained parenthood. Therefore, if you wish to serve God with truly good works, look no further than this commandment, Honor your father and your mother that it may go well with you and you may live long in the land. Here the holy God has set up His own place on earth, within the vocation of parents, and has established this foundation of all society and government, the family, by His Word and command.
So mightily and with such exceeding honor, does our Lord God bestow upon the office of parent and the vocation of family, that His own beloved Son did not spurn the womb of the Virgin Mary, but was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was born unto an earthly mother. To her and His guardian, St Joseph, He willingly, in patience and humility, faithfully submitted.
Not for His own sake, for He came to be about His Father’s business in His Father’s house; to be the atoning Sacrifice for sin. But entirely for yours, does the sole begotten Son of the Father choose to live with the walls of a broken and sinful family. Precisely because He is the Seed of the Woman does the eternal Son reside within a family, redeeming this earthly estate and honoring it as established and ordained by God.
In this way, Jesus not only shares in the flesh and blood of His Virgin Mother, but He likewise shares in the flesh and blood of all mankind, the entire human family. And in submitting Himself to the the parental authority of His earthly mother and adoptive father, He likewise submits Himself to the will of His heavenly Father and in perfect obedience, voluntarily took upon Himself the curse and consequence of sin, namely death.
Behold, then, beloved, in misery and pain, the Virgin’s Son, who for your disobedience and disconnect with your parents, though given by God, submits to the Virgin Mary and St Joseph, and even in death, cares for and provides a home for His beloved Mother. This is her little Boy, whom she had carried and delivered, nursed and diapered, and taught so many things over the years, as He grew and learned. What games had they played? What smiles had He given her? What bedtime stories and nap time cuddles had they shared? And shall He now be so cruelly put to death before her very eyes, without touching her heart and soul at their core?
The death of a child is surely one of the most difficult and painful sorrows that anyone can ever suffer. It hardly matters whether that child is three, or thirteen, or thirty-three, or in the first or third trimester in the womb. To lose a child is to be confronted with the absolute and utter futility of our mortal life; of our human flesh under the curse of sin and death.
It is precisely this curse, this pain and death, that our Lord Christ willingly bears in His flesh born the Virgin Mary. In His Body, given mortal life from her, Jesus carries all the sins and sorrows of the whole world. He dies, not for the sins of His own, for He has none, but for the sins of all His mortal fathers and mothers, and for all their sinful mortal children, for all His brothers and sisters in the flesh. He dies for you and for your sins. Thus does St Mary grieve her Son.
For though she was once spared this atrocity several decades before, when, at the behest of the angelic dream given to St Joseph, the Holy Family fled to Egypt ahead of Herod’s murderous rage, she now joins Rachel in weeping for her Child. Like Israel of old, her “Joseph” has been sold for the price of a slave, His coat is stained with blood, some vicious beast has taken His life, and her own soul is pierced as well, as Simeon had prophesied.
What are we to do with grief like that? She had learned to let Him go early in His life. Already in the Temple at twelve years old she was reminded that He was not her’s, not really. No child every really is. Your children are not your own. Especially after having received the heavenly adoption of Holy Baptism. They are marked with the Name of the Holy Trinity and traced with the sign of the Holy Cross of Christ, to whom they belong. There, from the birth waters of the font, our Father in heaven has made them His own, snatching them from the jaws of the Evil One. But He has placed them back into your care, to love and admonish, to raise in the fear and instruction of the Lord.
It is no different for the Christ Child. Like Hannah giving her dear son, Samuel, into the care and keeping of the Lord at His Temple, St Mary, whose body once held the Temple made without hands, has already given her Son to the Lord. He now goes to His Father by way of His Cross and Passion, and in filial obedience and tender love, our Lord Christ, St Mary’s Son, commends the care of His dear Mother into the hands of His beloved disciple, St John. Woman, behold your son! Behold, your mother! And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
Here then, beloved, is not only your example of filial piety, but here is St Mary’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, fulfilling the Fourth Commandment, of you. The Son of God cares for His Mother. He entrusts her to a good man who provides for her a house and home. The Lord also gives her another son in this man, the beloved disciple, and he shall honor her as a Mother in Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus does not afflict or grieve the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve willingly. He is not nonchalant about your pain. He bears it in His own Body, smitten with the ravages of the Fall on your behalf, nailed to the accursed Tree, so that He might make men His again. So that He can raise every mother’s son and daughter, every child of Adam and Eve, in His own flesh and blood.
What He does for Mother Mary, He does for you, dear children. The same Lord Jesus provides for you in your bereavement and mourning. He does care for the widow and the orphan. He hears your cries and shall not leave you forsaken. He has given Himself for you, and He shall not withhold His goodness from you.
Look around you, even here. These are your mothers and your sons, your sisters and daughters and fathers and brothers in Christ. Ought you not love them and they love you in the mercy and compassion of your dear Lord Jesus? You are not helpless or alone. You are not without a home and a family. And if you find no need in yourself, then behold the needs of your neighbors around you here and elsewhere and help them.
Who among you has had a miscarriage and now mourns in silent sorrow? Whose parents are ill and dying? Whose job is in danger? Who is overwhelmed and struggling to manage, to get by? Who is drowning in depression and despair?
Behold, dear ones, you stand at the foot of the Cross, awaiting the Word of the Lord. Take heart, for He has not forgotten you. You are the disciples whom Jesus loves. And not only has He given you to comfort and care for your brothers and sisters in His Name, for widows and orphans in distress, but He has also laid you upon the bosom of His Church, to find in her your Mother.
From her font, by the Word and Spirit, you have been conceived and born again as a son of God in Christ. He clothes you with His blood stained garment; His robe of righteousness. And at her festal board, the Son of Mary is still given in the same flesh and blood, like yours, in which He was born for you, lived and died for you, in which He has risen from the dead for you, and lives and reigns forever at the right hand of His God and Father.
He has made you a member of His Bride, the Church, the Mother of all the living. He has given you a place here in the home of all His beloved disciples, even as He has prepared a place for you, a house and home, with Himself in heaven.
In the Name of the Father + and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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