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Mary, Consoler
Jesus said (Matthew 26:42) My Father, if this chalice may not pass away, but I must drink it, thy will be done.
This, at Gethsemane, where He held such great fear of the impending agonies.
Luke 22:43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.
So Jesus not only realised great dread so that His sweat was like drops of blood,
but He also
needed help
which was given Him
by the angel.
Shortly after this, one of His Twelve Disciples completed his act of betrayal and the others deserted Him.
Jesus was The Lamb of God, and He embraced these treacheries and the incredible sufferings to follow,
on behalf of us sinners.
Now, if someone was trying to whip me to death and stopped for a moment to say Hey, I'm really sorry about this. Is there something I can do or say to console you before I whip you death? what would be my reaction?
I'm afraid that my fearful reply might be caustic and contemptuous and might even be lacking in that love-for-neighbour attitude.
Consequently, looking at the position from Jesus' point of view where we might try to console Him in His terrible inflictions,
we are asking Him
the same question!
It was our sins that brought Him to The Cross.
The Roman soldiers
and the Jewish leaders
could be truthfully said
to be acting
on our behalf
in their condemnation and in their cruelty
with regard to Jesus, The Christ.
Therefore, it could well be me (or you) that says to Jesus, as I hammered the nails through His Hands,
I hammer the nails
but I want to console you!
In normal circumstances the reply would be
If you want to console me
stop hammering the nails!
I would have to reply
Sorry, I will continue hammering
for I have agreed to it!
I am part of the betrayal!
The point I am trying to make is this:- it is most difficult for us sinners to try and console The Son of God, The Man of Suffering,
when it is solely because of us
that He is suffering!
And so I come to the point of all this:-
The Woman of Scripture - Mary -
The Immaculate Conception.
By divine Providence Mary, The Mother of Christ, was conceived without original sin and never, ever, offended God or man in the slightest way. The Woman was, is, without sin.
Now, here is someone who could really console Jesus. Someone who was not hammering the nails through His Wrists! Someone who never contributed, in the slightest, to His agonies!
Here,
in her Immaculate Conception
and in her Motherhood
which reflected perfectly The Goodness and The Fatherhood of The Eternal-father of Jesus Christ,
we find the one and only person
who could and would and did
console The Saviour.
Of course, Jesus did embrace, and was somewhat consoled by, the sorrow of all sinners, past, present and in the future, but we must bear in mind that this sorrow was made possible only by His Infinite Merits.
Indeed, the very Immaculate Conception of His Mother was also made possible through His Infinite Merits!
Nevertheless, the one and only true-consoler of all humanity, Mary, The Woman of Scripture, The Mother, was there and she did console Her Son.
Indeed, she consoled Her Son from the moment of His conception in her sacred womb until His expiry on The Cross decades later.
This in itself is a most marvellous thing - a wondrous consolation for all of us sinners - that there was at least one person that could and did truly console Him. We have to be totally grateful to Mary for this but our gratitude only begins at that point,
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