By: Don Burt on March 15th, 2021
In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, there is a small memorial – you might miss it completely if you did not have a guide –about four feet by four feet square with a small flame in the middle and a baldachin surrounding it. This is the “Armenian Chapel,” also known as the “Station of the Holy Women.”
I have been blessed to have visited this church and chapel twice, in 2015 and 2017. The first time I was in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Station of the Holy Women was easy to overlook as the larger church can be overwhelming and the chapel’s proximity to the site of the crucifixion made this chapel almost invisible to me. But the second time I was there, the importance of this holy space finally dawned on me. This was the place where Mary watched her Son die, the place where a sword pierced her heart, the spot where Jesus gave her to all of us and she became our mother. Standing at this chapel and looking up to the spot of the crucifixion, I felt close to Mary.
In reflecting on this holy place, I return to Mary. In our Church, rightfully so, we hold her in such a place of esteem that it is sometimes hard to remember that she was a regular person, first a daughter, then a wife, then a widow, as well as a parent. She had no special power that eased her pains, sorrows, and anxiety. She went through her daily life much like you and I do, taking each day at a time and dealing with all her problems in the best way that she could. But where she differed from most of us was in her faith. Regardless of what happened in her life, she had faith that God would see her through. Her “best way that she could” was by relying on her faith, whether it was spending three days looking for a young Jesus in Jerusalem or taking up station at the foot of the cross. Mary experienced it all.
Our own lives are not easy, though they are not as tough as Mary’s was; we struggle, we have anxieties, moments of doubt and depression. There are times when we feel that we just cannot go on for one more day. These are the times when we need to look to Mary and contemplate her at the foot of the cross. She stayed there and stood by her Son and trusted, trusted that God would make this all work … somehow. So, imagine the incomparable joy she must have felt just a few days later when she encountered her risen Son. And that is the way God works in each of our lives. If we trust as Mary trusted, if we lay it all at God’s feet, things will be OK; God will get us through the current suffering in our lives. Turn to Mary, as our mother, as one who has experienced all that we are going through and remained faithful. Pray to her to intercede, pray to her for comfort and remember: we all need to spend time experiencing something of the pain she felt at the foot of the cross in order to experience the joy she felt on that first Easter morning.
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