The Way of the Heart with Mary. Step Seven. We give our life with Him.

Mary gave everything she had to live for, she gave that for which her life had taken on meaning, her Son, the Son of God: ” behold your son, behold your mother”, Mary gave that which gave her life, that for which she had consecrated her whole life. 

From a human point of view, the exchange was not a Happy One for Her.  The greatest beneficiary in this case is John and those he represents, that is, all of us beloved disciples of Christ. Mary does not ‘win’ humanly with ‘this exchange of son’. She gives all she has, the Son of God, the Beloved, who asks his mother to take care of “John”, a “John” that includes all of us.

Any good mother knows very well that it is easier to give one’s own life than to give up one child to receive another, especially if the child comes battered. What does Mary’s surrender mean? With this acceptance, Mary surrenders her very life, the Love she conceived in her womb, the One for whom she had left everything. Only the love of God can move this generosity, to follow the Lord’s invitation at the cost of herself. Mary accepts and embraces her cross out of love for her Son, and in Him for the Father.

She knows that she is loved, chosen, and full of gratitude. She is capable of responding to so much good received, offering Him who is worth more to her than her own life. Curiously, this madness, from the divine point of view, makes her win: she surrenders her pierced heart of Mother, and receives the universal heart of the Father, becoming the mother of all the beloved of the Lord.

How can she not understand our pains and difficulties when it comes to taking up our cross and following the Master? Who else but she can be aware of what this means for the disciple? Mary is our Mother in every sense of the word, because she has the Father’s heart for us. She loves us with her whole being, she is the feminine face of the Father for us. She more than anyone else can encourage us on this path of discipleship. Today you are invited to give your life too, to be bread broken for your brothers, to give out of love your time, your talents, your skills in favor of your brothers. What is that for which you would give your life?

The Way of the Heart Training Team 

Latin America and the Caribbean