For mercy's sake

 A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him (Luke 23:27). When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home (John 19:27).

It is mercy we crave and mercy we find in him who is shown no mercy. And seeing him, hearing his voice, we know the mercy of the One who is Mercy, another name for our God to be sure.

The women of Jerusalem weep for Jesus as he drags himself toward his execution. We are not told that Mary, his mother, witnessed this, only that she was at his cross when they lifted him high to be mocked and bleed out his final hours.

We cannot imagine Mary’s agony as she watched, even if we have been at the side of our beloved as they drew their final breath. There is no pain like the death of one’s child under any circumstances, let alone ... this.

We are left to wonder if Mary spoke to him as he died, offering final words of love that could never be enough to say what was in her heart. Scripture is silent about this, too.

But Jesus spoke to her and to a friend he loved as dearly as any he knew in this life. He gave them to each other that they who loved him might be bound together in the love he awakened in them.

It was a final act of mercy, by one denied mercy, revealing the Mercy who holds us one and all.

Pr. David L. Miller

We adore, O Christ, and we bless you.

By you holy cross you have redeemed the world