At his birth and death Mary was the constant in his life.
In Koder’s painting Mary, hardly middle aged, cradles her son one last time – a painting which shows such touching love, lasting devotion and enduring affection.
Leaning against the cross with human skulls strewn upon the ground around her Mary’s presence brings warmth and humanity to a scene of carnage and brutality.
She caresses Jesus’ body which has been racked by pain and is now covered in blood.
There is surely an eternal truth in this poignant painting – that even in the toughest struggle love finds a way.
In the mystery of The Trinity – something of God finds a resting place within a mother’s arms as Mary lays her head upon Jesus one last time.
Love wins through not only at the empty tomb but also at the empty cross.
Maybe it has never been put better than in the words etched into the walls of a basement in Cologne during the Holocaust:
I believe in the sun
even when it isn't shining.
I believe in love
even when I am alone.
I believe in God
even when he is silent.
The body of our Lord will be taken down by Joseph of Arimathea and be buried before sundown with loving respect.
None of this negates or even reduces the sufferings of Jesus upon the cross. Yet even in the face of such brutality love was not absent – a mother remains faithful and a friend offers a final resting place.
When suffering comes – to us, to those we love or those we hardly know yet with whom we share the common bond of humanity – there is surely just one response: love. A love that never gives up. Your love, my love, God’s love.
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