(Please read the Scripture passage before reading the homily.
We celebrate on this date the fact that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, experienced much sorrow and stress as she lived her life of faith in God. This passage describes how Jesus made arrangements for his own as he was dying. The passage, as with all passages of the John’s Gospel, focuses on Jesus.
We can assume Mary is a widow as her Son provides for her upkeep. He puts her under the protection of the beloved disciple. He entrusts the beloved disciple to her. The beloved disciple is not named or identified: we often identify his with John, the author of the fourth Gospel. Here, however, we ought to identify him as the Church, which is the beloved disciple of the Lord. As he dies on the cross, Jesus provides for his Mother and the beloved disciple, the Church on earth and the Mother and Disciple in the glory of the Father. In linking Mary and Church, he establishes a mutual and interlocking unity between heaven and earth, between earthy Mother and disciples and heavenly Mother and Church.
The passage can challenge us. How do we provide for the Mother and Disciple in our lives? How do we see others as beloved disciples of the Lord? How do we take on the role of mother, brother, or sister to others as we share faithful relationship with the One who died and rose from the dead?