The Compassion of the Blessed Virgin (II)

Brethren, do you not see how she stood there, at the foot of the cross, and with what eyes she gazed upon her Son, bleeding and covered with wounds, no longer of human likeness? The sight of Him cuts her to the quick: if she draws near to this altar, it is because she herself longs to be sacrificed. This is when she feels the blade of the sword which, by Simeon's prophecy, was to tear open her womb and open her mother's heart with such cruel wounds. She is there at her Son's side, not so much for physical closeness, but because they are united in their pains: Stabat juxta crucem. She truly stands at the foot of the cross, because the mother carries the cross of her Son with a greater pain than that of all the others who have suffered for Him.