THE MOST HOLY VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOD DIED OF LOVE FOR HER SON
We cannot reasonably doubt that the great St. Joseph passed away before the passion and death of the Saviour. Otherwise Jesus would not have recommended his Mother to St. John. Then how can we imagine that this dear Child of his heart, his beloved Fosterson, did not assist him at the hour of his death? Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy (Mt 5:7) What loving kindness, charity and mercy were shown by this Fosterfather towards the Saviour, when he was born as a little Child in this world! Who could then think this divine Son would not offer him the same service a hundredfold, filling him with heavenly joy when he was leaving this world?
The storks[1] are a true image of the mutual devotion of children for their parents and of parents for their children. For these are birds of passage. They carry their old fathers and mothers on their journeys. Thus when they were young, their fathers and mothers had carried them on similar occasions.
When the Saviour was still a little child, the great St. Joseph, his Foster-father, and the Most glorious Virgin Mother, had carried him many times. It was especially on their journey from Judea to Egypt and from Egypt back to Judea. Then who can doubt that this holy Foster-father, on reaching the end of his life, was not in turn carried by this divine Foster-child, on his journey from this world to the next, to the bosom of Abraham? Then on the day of his ascension, would not he transfer him to his own bosom into glory?
A saint who had loved so much in this life could not but die of love. For his soul was unable to love his dear Jesus as he wished, amid the distractions of this life. He had done the service needed for him when he was young. What remained for St. Joseph, if not to say to the eternal Father: O Father, I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do (Jn 17.4)? Then to the Son: “O my child, as your heavenly Father entrusted your body into my hands on the day of your coming into this world, so on this day of my departure from this world: Into your hand I commit my spirit (Ps 31:5; Lk 23:46)[2]
Such I think was the death of this great Patriarch, a man chosen by God to do the most tender and loving service to the Son of God. Such services would never be done for him except those performed by his heaven-sent Spouse, true natural Mother of this same Son. In her case, it is impossible to think that she died of any other cause than that of love. This is the death, the most noble of all. As a consequence, it is due to the most noble life ever lived by creatures. It is a death by which even the angels themselves would desire to die if they were able to die.
The early Christians were said to have but one heart and one soul (Acts 4: 32) because of their perfect mutual love. St. Paul did not live for self but Jesus Christ lived in him (Gal 2:20), on account of the deep union of his heart with that of his Master. By it, his soul was as if dead in his heart which it was animating. It lived in the heart of the Saviour which it loved.
If so, God knows, how much truer it is that the Holy Virgin and her Son had but one soul and one heart and one life. Hence, this Blessed Mother was not living in her own self, but her Son was living in her! She was the Mother most loving and the most beloved who could ever be. But she was loving and loved by a love supremely pre-eminent than that of all the hierarchies of angels and humans. It is to such an extent that the names of the unique Mother and the unique Son are also the names above all other names in what concerns love. I said the unique Mother and the unique Son because all other children of humans owe their procreation to a father and mother, the relationship between them. But his [Jesus] human birth depended only on his Mother. She alone contributed what was required by the power of the Holy Spirit for the conception of this divine Child. It was due to her alone and she gave all the love which came from this birth. Hence, this Son and this Mother were united by a union all the more excellent, as her name is surpassing in love above all other names.
Which, therefore, of all the Seraphim can say to the Saviour: You are truly my Son, I love you as my own Son? To which of all the creatures did the Saviour ever say: You are truly my Mother and I love you as my own Mother. You are my real Mother, all mine and I am your own Son, all yours? A loving servant dared to say and in fact, said it that he had no other life than that of his Master (Gal 2: 20). If so, how much more boldly and fervently this Mother could exclaim: I have no other life than that of my Son! My life is all in him and his life is all in my life. For it is no longer union but unity of heart, of soul and of life between this Mother and this Son.
Now, if this Mother lived with the life of her Son, she also died with the death of her Son. As a person lives, so is his or her death. It is said that the phoenix, when it grows very old, gathers a quantity of aromatic wood and arranges them on a high mountain. On this, as on its bed of honour, it stretches out itself to end its life. When the sun is hottest at noon and sheds its burning rays, this all unique bird enhances the heat of the sun by an additional action. It does not cease beating its wings on this funeral pyre until it catches fire. Burning with it the phoenix is consumed and dies in the sweet smelling flames. In the same way, Theotimus, the Virgin Mother gathered in her spirit, by a very vivid and continuous memory, all the most loving mysteries of the life and death of her Son. She always receives directly the most ardent inspirations which her Son, the sun of justice (Mal 4:2), showers over humans at the height of his charity. Moreover, she makes a perpetual movement of contemplation. Finally the sacred fire of this divine love consumed her as holocaust of sweetness. Thus she died of love, her soul enraptured and carried between the arms of the love of her Son. O death, lovingly life giving, O love leading to life giving death!
Several sacred lovers were present at the death of the Saviour. Among them those who had the greatest love had the greatest sorrow. Love, then, was in sorrow and sorrow in love. All those who had a passionate love for their Saviour were lovers of his passion and sorrow. But the gentle Mother, who loved the Saviour more than all, was more than all pierced by a sword of sorrow. The suffering of the Son was a sword piercing through the heart of the Mother (Lk 2: 35), as the heart of the Mother was intimately joined and united to her Son. This union was so perfect that nothing could wound the one without seriously wounding also the other. That maternal heart was wounded by love. She did not seek any healing of her wound but loved her wound more than any healing. She cherished with love the arrows of sorrow she had received because of the love which had pierced her heart. She constantly desired to die of them because her Son had died of them. He, as the whole holy Scripture and the theologians say, died in the flames of charity, a perfect holocaust for all the sins of the world.
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[1] The Romans took this bird as an emblem of filial piety. Kerns, TLG, P. 306
[2] NRSV. In the original Ps 30:6.