May, month of Mary: meditation on the twenty-fifth day

MEETING WITH JESUS

25 DAY
Holy Mary.

Invocation. - Mary, Mother of mercy, pray for us!

Fourth pain:
MEETING WITH JESUS
Jesus foretold to the Apostles the pains that awaited him in the Passion, to dispose them to the great trial: «Behold, we ascend to Jerusalem and the Son of man will be consigned to the principles of the Priests and Scribes and will condemn him to death. And they will hand it over to the Gentiles to be mocked, scourged and crucified, and on the third day it will rise again "(St. Matthew, XX, 18).
If Jesus said this several times to the Apostles, he certainly said it also to his Mother, to whom he hid nothing. Through the Holy Scriptures, Mary Most Holy knew what the end of her Divine Son would be; but hearing the story of the Passion from the very lips of Jesus, his Heart was bleeding.
He revealed the Blessed Virgin to Santa Brigida, that when the time of the Passion of Jesus was approaching, her maternal eyes were always full of tears and a cold sweat flowed through her limbs, foreseeing that nearby show of blood.
When the Passion began, Our Lady was in Jerusalem. He did not witness the capture in the garden of Gethsemane or even the humiliating scenes of the Sanhedrin. All this had happened at night. But in the morning, when Jesus was led by Pilate, the Madonna was able to be present and had under her gaze Jesus scourged in blood, dressed as a madman, crowned with thorns, spit, slapped and cursed, and finally listened to the death sentence. Which mother could have resisted such agony? Our Lady did not die from the extraordinary fortress with which she was endowed and because God reserved her for greater pain on Calvary.
When the painful procession moved from the Praetorium to go to Calvary, Maria, accompanied by San Giovanni, went there and crossing a shorter road, stopped to meet with the afflicted Jesus, who would pass by there.
She was known by the Jews and who knows how many insulting words she has heard against the Divine Son and against Her!
According to the use of time, the passage of the condemned to death was announced by a sad trumpet sound; preceded those who carried the instruments of the crucifixion. The Madonna with the crash in the Heart heard, aimed and wept. What was not his pain when he saw Jesus carrying the cross! The bloody face, the thorny head, the wavering step! - The wounds and bruises made him seem like a leper, almost not to be recognized (Isaiah, LITI). Sant'Anselmo says that Maria would
wanted to embrace Jesus, but was not granted; he contented himself with looking at him. The eyes of the Mother met those of the Son; not a word. What will be passed in. that moment between the Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Our Lady? It cannot express itself. Feelings of tenderness, of compassion, of encouragement; vision of humanity's sins to repair, adoration of the will of the Divine Father! ...
Jesus continued the way with the cross on his shoulders and Mary followed him with the cross in the Heart, both of them directed to Calvary to sacrifice themselves for the good of ungrateful humanity.
«Whoever wants to come after me, Jesus had said one day, deny himself, take up his cross and follow me! »(San Matteo, XVI, 24). He repeats the same words to us too! Let's take the cross that God assigns to us in life: either poverty or illness or misunderstanding; let's take it with merit and follow Jesus with the same sentiments with which Our Lady followed him in the painful way. After the cross there is the glorious resurrection; after suffering this life there is eternal joy.

EXAMPLE

In pain the eyes are opened, the light is seen, the Sky is aimed. A soldier, devoted to all sorts of pleasures, did not think of God. He felt the emptiness in his heart and tried to fill it with the leisures that allowed him to live in the military. So he continued, until a big cross came over him.
Taken by the enemies, it was closed in a tower. In solitude, in the deprivation of pleasures, he re-entered himself and realized that life is not a garden of roses, but a tangle of thorns, with some roses. The good memories of childhood came back to him and he began to meditate on the Passion of Jesus and the pains of Our Lady. Divine light illuminated that darkened mind.
The young man had the vision of his faults, felt his weakness to cut off all sin and then turned to the Virgin for help. Strength came; not only could he avoid sin, but he gave himself to a life of dense prayer and bitter penance. Jesus and Our Lady were so pleased with this change, that they comforted their son with apparitions and once showed him the Paradise and the place that was prepared for him.
When he was released from captivity, he abandoned the life of the world, consecrated himself to God and became the founder of a Religious Order, known as the Somascan Fathers. He died holy and today the Church venerates him on the Altars, San Girolamo Emiliani.
If he had not had the prison cross, perhaps that soldier would not have sanctified himself.

Foil. - Do not be a burden to anyone and patiently endure harassing people.

Ejaculation. - Bless, O Mary, those who give me the opportunity to suffer!