Mary's Resurrection: A Mother's Heart Made Whole and New!

Made New. What beautiful words! They are words we not only long to hear but make our own! Redemption, second chances, a new start are at the very core of what it is to be human. The opportunity to make things right again make life worth living.

However, for so many of us, myself included, it is all too easy to brush off the idea of redemption and settle for the status quo.

I am sure as a mother, it is much easier for you to identify with the Sorrowful Heart of Our Lady instead of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who is Mother of the Risen Lord and the Church.

In the previous two articles, I mentioned how Our Lady, witnessing her own son during the Passion, also parallels your witness of your children in the midst of their own struggles, including the pain you experience in your heart for them.

However, I truly believe Our Lady, as much as she can identify with your sorrowful heart, wishes to do far more than merely let you cope with your pain.

Mel Gibson’s The Passion is loaded with deep theological truths that are yet so down to earth. As Christ is portrayed being taken down from the cross, the first person to greet him is his mother. She embraces him, wounds and all, caressing his face, kissing his cheek, and then, what hit me like lightening the first few times I watched that film, Mary, places her hand across his chest. It is not a gesture of anger towards us, her spiritual children, but invitation. Her hand is open to us, as if she is inviting us into the very depth of his sacrifice, the very depth of his Sacred Heart which her hand is an extension of.

Our Lady only invites us into the sacrifice of her son, she only invites mothers into her sorrowful heart, her passion, because at the other end is the Resurrection.

The Resurrection is new life, a new beginning and the new creation! The Resurrection of Christ allowed Mary’s heart, and especially the wound which pierced it, to flow forth with abundant graces of newness, healing and hope!

The Resurrection of the Son, empowers you as a mother to be a median of grace and hope to your children, just as Our Lady is to all of us, her spiritual sons and daughters. Your mediation as a mother, loving them in that place of their wounds, just as Mary embraced her son amidst his passion, brings a hope that there is something beyond the past: healing after being wounded, life after death, hope in the face of despair. Christ’s Resurrection put sin to death. Mary’s Passion bruised the head of the serpent. Satan and evil no longer have the final say. Your suffering within your family is not the final judgment. Love, hope and healing are.

The Heart of Our Lady, radiant with the joy of her son’s rising from the dead, is meant to be reflected in your own heart! And yes, no matter what has afflicted your family, no matter where your children are at this time, there is always hope for them and for you! What will that look like?

It is not mentioned in the gospels, but I like to think that Mary, who was the first to receive Christ in her womb, was the first to receive him from the tomb. (For more information check out this great meditation by St. John Paul II, Mary Was Witness to the Whole Paschal Mystery, https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP2BVM51.HTML)

What did that meeting look like? These words are so unworthy, so minimal compared to what Easter truly was for her, but the meeting between Our Lady and Our Lord, the same meeting you are meant to have with your children, may have looked something like this:

She who saw all lost, witnessed everything gained!

She kissed the bleeding wounds of her son at the cross, she embraced the glory of his wounds made whole and new!

She held the dead body of her son, she beheld his glorified body that Easter Morning!

She saw his dignity stripped bare, she saw him arrayed in dignity, glory and majesty only the eternal God can give!

She, who witnessed his heart pierced, bled and emptied of everything, now witnessed his heart beating radiantly with a love nothing can ever pierce or destroy!

She saw his head crowned with thorns of shame, she now became the gemstone of the crown of the new creation which adorned his head!

The wounds of his hands, feet and side, which Thomas scoffed at, she was the first to enter into them and be the first to proclaim their glory by saying “My Lord and My God!”

That wound of her heart, pierced by the sword of despair, humiliation and heartache, now pours forth limitless graces of new life, new love and new hope!

What did they say to one another? Were words even needed? With your own child, will words be necessary when you see your little one made whole and new? Maybe the only words Mary said to Jesus, as she beheld his glory were “My Son!” Maybe the only words he uttered to her were “My Mother!” knowing that their true identity was finally manifested that glorious morning; a mother who said yes, a son who did the rest!

When I walked into the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. this past Easter, I was overcome with emotion for what my mother had done for me in my healing journey and where Our Lady came through where my mother could not. Tears did come, as did the knowledge that, without Our Lady, we would not have the glory of redemption we have today.

Without you, your children, who so need you, would not have the promise of redemption your heart can offer them! The easiest path for them is reaching the Heart of Our Lady by way of yours! I cannot promise you when it will happen or how, but I can promise you, if in your heart you never forget the Blessed Mother for the sake of your children, She in her goodness, will never forget you and yours!

All Our Lady needs is your permission and she will do the rest!