Jesus spent two of his last sentences on his mother

CALVARY, JERUSALEM, the eve of a great sabbath — The soldiers had nailed Jesus of Nazareth to a cross just outside the gates of Jerusalem. Then they split his clothes into four shares, one for each of them. His coat was woven in a single piece with no seam, so they didn’t cut it up. They drew lots for it instead.

While the soldiers were drawing their lots, the Blessed Virgin Mary was standing at the foot of the cross. She was close enough to hear him. St. John the Evangelist, the disciple whom Jesus loved, stood beside her. So did her sister, Mary of Cleophas, and St. Mary Magdalen.

Earlier that same day, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, had sentenced him. Pilate said twice that he found no fault in Jesus. But the chief priests and their servants shouted for him to be crucified, and they told the governor what the charge was: “We have a law; and according to the law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” Pilate handed him over to be crucified anyway.

Jesus carried his own cross out to the place called Calvary, just outside the city. His mother was there when the soldiers nailed him to it.

The Blessed Virgin Mary had been told years before what was coming. When she brought her baby son to the Temple in Jerusalem, a man named Simeon took the child in his arms. Simeon told her that a sword would pierce her own soul.

Two sentences, and she had a new son

Jesus was dying. From the cross he could see his mother and the disciple standing beside her.

He spoke to her first. “Woman, behold thy son,” he said. The son he meant was St. John, standing next to her. Then he spoke to St. John: “Behold thy mother.” Those two sentences settled who would look after her. From that hour St. John took the Blessed Virgin Mary into his own care.

Then Jesus said he was thirsty. His mother heard him say it. She was not allowed to bring him water.

The soldiers soaked a sponge in vinegar and held it up to his mouth on a stalk of hyssop. When he had taken it he said, “It is consummated.” Then he bowed his head and died. His mother stood there until he was dead.

The sabbath was coming. The bodies could not be left hanging into it, so soldiers came to break the legs of the three men and take them down. They broke the legs of the two men crucified beside Jesus. When the soldiers came to Jesus, they found him already dead, so they left his legs alone. One of them opened Jesus’s side with a spear, and blood and water came out.