Behold

"Come follow me," Jesus says.  The invitation resounds through all the time there is and ever will be, and all who respond in faith - all who exchange their "I" for the "I" of the Christ who lives within them - make their way, one way or another, to the foot of the cross. There they find themselves with John and Mary and a host of bedraggled saints and sinners whose hour has come. And to each of these brothers and sisters in whom he forever lives, to each of us, Jesus says, "Behold, your mother." And to Mary, "Behold, your children.  Behold me." - Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon


So much theology in one brief quotation.  Fr. Neuhaus has spent pages developing these thoughts:

• the role of our earthly mothers in nurturing our sense of our self.
• that Christ was telling Mary, John, and - most of all - us that he lives in us insofar as we are willing to allow him to, by the Holy Spirit's presence. 
• that it is not our own initiative that brings this potential into reality in our lives, though it will only be real to the degree that we must cooperate with God's love.
• how much John must have learned about the Lord's Incarnation and the early days of his life as Mary spent the latter days of hers with him.
• the nature of the exchange in which we so unfairly exchange our mortal, limited lives for God's immortal, eternal life.

Yet sometimes I insist on clinging to my own "I."  There are sometimes parts of me that can seem more important to stubborn me than reflecting Christ in all things.  I suspect this is true for everyone.  Don't you do it, too?

How sad for us.

And yet our hope and our way is immeasurably greater than our limited ability and willingness to give ourselves over to his grace. So patient with us, he ever leads us to embrace his "I" more fully.