Tuesday September 15, 2026

John 19:25-27 Feast of the of Sorrows

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala.

Scripture scholars have remarked that if we only had the gospel of John, we would never know His mother’s name. Yes Mary is never mentioned by name in this gospel. She is always “his mother” or “the mother”. Remember the gospel of John is a High Christology gospel. The emphasis here is his pre-existence. High Christology is great but something is lost in the process according to me. I think we miss out on the humanity of it all. And it is this humanity that we connect with and it preaches to us.

What mother or father has not stayed up all night worried about their child? We know that these things take a toll on our mothers. Mary sat there helpless and crushed. She could fix many things but this one… this one was a tough one. What do you do? What do you pray for when your baby is crucified. Crucified literally and for many of us figuratively. Mother standing helplessly as the world’s brutality meets her child. Today please say a prayer for the caretakers, the parents, the siblings who have to be by the bedside praying for it to hurry up and end now coz the longer it goes on the more unbearable it becomes. Be the support to a mother in sorrow.