“If the mother of Jesus could speak to us, I’m confident Mary would tell us that the physical discomfort she felt in her aching back and swollen feet from standing for three hours in the hot sun was nothing compared to the interior pain piercing her soul. After she described how each moan of Jesus shattered her heart, she would assure us that she would must rather have had it be herself who bore that pain of crucifixion than her cherished Son. This beloved mother would remind us that the only ‘crime’ her innocent child committed was having an immense love for humanity and a yearning for them to treat one another with care.

“Then Mary, being a kindhearted and supportive woman, would move away from her anguish and ask us to turn our thoughts toward parents today who endure standing by the crosses of their children, parents who long to lessen that suffering but are powerless to do so.”