III. AT THE CROSS (19:25-27): FROM WOMAN TO MOTHER

Let us see now how the data we have gathered from the Cana event can shed light on the event of the cross.

Unlike Cana. the scene described in 19:25-27 is not completely peculiar to John. Like the two scenes that precede it in the Passion Narrative (19:19-22 and 19:23-24). it contains a core common also to the Synoptics. To this core peculiarly Johannine elements are attached:

The common core is admittedly very small: the moment Jesus dies, there are some women present, among them Mary Magdalene (also in Mt and Mk) and Mary the wife of Clopas, perhaps the same Mary that is also the mother of James and Joseph, mentioned in Mt and Mk. In the remainder there are only differences:

1. While in the Synoptics, the mention of the women follows upon the description of Jesus' death, in John it precedes it.

2. While in the Synoptics the women stand at a distance, in John they stand "by the cross".

3. The most important difference consists of course in the content of w.26-27. unknown to the Synoptics: on the one hand, the presence of the Beloved Disciple; on the other hand. the words of Jesus to this disciple (v.27) and to his own mother (v.26). It is our task now to examine these elements peculiar to John.

A. "Behold, your son!" (19:26)

The Crucified first of all addresses his mother: "Woman, behold your son!" (ide ho hyios sou).

A good number of modem exegetes, actually toeing the line of some Fathers of the first centuries, hold that John has merely reported a manifestation of provident attachment and a very natural demonstration of filial piety. At the moment of his death. Jesus entrusts his mother to the protection of a disciple of his. The latter will be able to take good care of her. when the death of her son will have left her by herself.

No quarrel about the fact that this is the primary sense of what is being related. But over and above this primary sense, does this account have also a symbolic meaning? Is it not necessary to look for a deeper theological meaning? There are at least two indications that we should do so.

1. The context

The majority of the events recounted in 19:16-37, besides a primary meaning, have also a symbolical import and a theological meaning. This is the case, for example, with the episode of the division of the garments (19:23-24) which comes immediately before our pericope. This episode reflects a custom of the times: the spoils of those condemned to death belonged by right to the soldiers or to those who fulfilled the function of executioners. John lingers over this apparently trivial event longer than the Synoptics (Mk 15:24 and parallels). If he does so. it is because he has his own purpose: he intends to affirm something with regard to Jesus' identity. Thus, applying to Jesus in v.24 the formula of Ps 22, the evangelist doubtless intends to show that in Jesus the figure of the "righteous persecuted" is perfectly realized. Ps 22 is the supplication of such a persecuted righteous one. The preceding episode (19:17-22) had presented Jesus as Messianic king. The divided clothes episode intends to show that this Messianic king has attained to the glory of royalty only by passing through the experience of rejection, persecution and death. So this episode further affirms a theological truth, that very same truth which Jesus had affirmed in 12:23-24:

"The hour has comefor the Son of man to be glorified.Truly, truly, I say to you,unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,it remains alone;but if it dies,it bears much fruit."

Similarly, the following episode of Jesus' death (19:28-30) concludes with the remark: "When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, 'It is finished'; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." It is true that this last expression is equivalent to the simple" he breathed his last". However, John's manner of speaking shows that the evangelist certainly does not limit himself to this first meaning. Actually, the formula "gave up his spirit", on the one hand. makes use of the noun to pneuma, which can mean both the vital breath and the Holy Spirit; on the other hand, it uses the verb paradidomi, "to transmit". There is no doubt that this verb is more meaningful than the verbs "to expire" (ekpheo) and "to yield" (aphiemi) used in the same context by Mark (15:37) and Matthew (27:50). Moreover, there follows immediately the narration of the "pierced side", from which flow water and blood (19:31-34). This episode can be linked with the saying of 7:38 ("Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water"). In this saying the evangelist sees a prediction of the gift of the Spirit. This gift, according to the Fourth Gospel, is consequent upon Jesus' "glorification" (7:39). But, as we have seen. Jesus' glorification is connected with his death-resurrection. It follows that by writing paredoken to pneuma, John must mean that the gift of the Spirit was already anticipated through the death of Jesus.

Let us take another example. After saying that the soldiers did not break the legs of Jesus, the evangelist remarks: " these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, 'Not a bone of him shall be broken' " (19:36) This passage certainly preserves the memory of a historical fact. namely, the custom of breaking the legs of the crucified (19:33). This custom is attested also by other contemporary sources. Nevertheless, in the light of Scripture, the evangelist discovers the deep meaning and import of an apparently unimportant event. Without this deep insight this event probably would have passed unnoticed. The retelling of this event offers John the occasion of identifying Jesus no longer with the "righteous persecuted" (as in 19:24), but with the paschal lamb. This is all the more plausible since John sees Jesus as "the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (1:29). In addition, the evangelist takes pains to note in 19:14 that it was about the sixth hour when Jesus was handed over to be crucified. This was the very moment when there began in the Temple the immolation of the lambs to be used for the celebration of the paschal meal (cf. 18:28). In this implicit way, John proclaims a datum of faith: this crucified, whose legs the soldiers will not break is the true and definitive paschal lamb, whose death brings salvation to his people.

All this compels us to conclude that, if the scene of 19:25-27 has only a literal sense devoid of all symbolic import, this scene would be the only one in the context not to carry any symbolic meaning."'

2. The presence of the Beloved Disciple

The "beloved disciple" is the one whom Jesus indicates to Mary as her "son" in 19:26. This disciple is named as such ("beloved") five times in the last part of the Gospel (chs. 13-20) and in the appendix (ch. 21 ). These mentions appear in the account of the last supper (13:23), of the crucifixion (here in 19:26-27), of the coming to the tomb (20:2), finally in the second ending in 21:7 and 21 :20. Four times out of five－the only exception is found in our passage here in 19:26-27－the Beloved Disciple is together with Peter. There are three other passages, all subsequent to the ones just mentioned, where there is mention of "this disciple" (21:23,24) or of "he who saw it" (19:35). In six other passages there is question of "the other disciple" or "another disciple", also unnamed and always associated with Simon Peter. Such is the case in the Passion Narrative (18:15,16) when Jesus appears before Caiaphas, and in the Resurrection Narrative (20:2.3,4,8). In 20:2 this "other disciple" is identified with the disciple whom Jesus loved:

[Mary Magdalene] ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."

Note should be taken of the fact that in certain passages the person and the experience of this disciple possess, in the eyes of the evangelist, a symbolic value. John sees in him the representative and the model of the believers. This is suggested especially in 19:35:

He who saw it has borne witness－his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth－that you also may believe

" that you also (kai hymeis) may believe": this formula suggests that the situation and the attitude of the Beloved Disciple have a value of anticipation and of standard-setting with respect to all the believers. In like manner, the promptness with which the same disciple believes on Easter morning－"he saw and believed" (20:8)－and recognizes the Risen One (21:7), must also have exemplary value.

We have. therefore, every reason to see the symbol of the ideal believer in the disciple who in 19:25-27 accompanies the mother of Jesus to the foot of the cross.

B. "Behold, your mother!" (19:27)

What is then the meaning of the formula: "Behold, your mother!" in 19:27?

Adhering to the Gospel data, it seems to me that two explanations can be entertained.

1. There is a passage in John which reveals certain affinities both with the Cana episode and with that of the crucifixion. It is Jn 16:20-21 :

Truly, truly, I say to you,

you will weep and lament.but the world will rejoice;you will be sorrowful,but your sorrow wilt turn into joy.When a woman (he gyne) is in travail she has sorrow,

because her hour (he hora autes) has come (elthen);but when she is delivered of the child.she no longer remembers the anguish,for joy that a human being is born into the world.

As in Jn 2:4 a and 19:26b, there is question here of a gyne (woman). As in 2:4b and 19:27 the hour (hora) is mentioned. Of course, here the hour is that of the woman and not, as in the other two cases, that of Jesus. This notwithstanding, this hour of child-bearing appears to be the symbol of the hour of Jesus' death: the disciples will be afflicted by the departure of Jesus just as a woman is plunged into sorrow when the hour has come to give birth to her child. In other words, in Jn 16:20-21, Jesus foretells to his own that at the moment of his death they will be like a woman at the moment of child-bearing. So that we can say that this woman-in-child-bearing symbolically or allegoricaily stands for the community of the disciples.

Given the points of contact between Jn 16:21 and 2:1-11 and 19:26-27, could we not apply the same symbolism to the mother of Jesus? At Cana, where the "woman" Mary places herself in the midst of the disciples, the "hour" has not yet come; in 16:21 Jesus speaks to the disciples of an hour which is coming soon and which will be like the hour of the "woman" who has to bring her child to light; in 19:26 the "woman" hears Jesus telling her: "Behold, your son!", at the very moment when the "hour" has finally arrived. Possibly, these points of contact answer to an intention of the evangelist. In 19:26 he describes the situation of the mother of Jesus in terms that are reminiscent of the situation of the woman in 16:21: John possibly wants us to see in the mother of Jesus a symbol of the Church, i.e. the community of the disciples. The noun "mother" absolutely used (i.e. without modifiers) in 19:26 tells in favour of this interpretation. In fact. if we translate this verse literally, this is the result: "When Jesus saw the mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to the mother. 'Woman, behold, your son! '" Mary is no longer viewed as the mother of Jesus, but as the symbol of the ecclesial community, as "the mother" of the faithful.

2. the second explanation is simpler but, in my view. it is even better suited to John's perspective. This interpretation results from the juxtaposition of the crucifixion scene to that of Cana.

We have seen that in 2:5 the reaction of the mother of Jesus is to be understood as a faith reaction. Having heard her son's reply (2:4), Mary raises herself somehow to the higher level of faith and correspondingly transforms the nature of her expectation. Confronted with this act of faith. Jesus works his first sign (2:5), thus inaugurating his mission and giving rise to the faith of his disciples (2:11). Thus Mary is the one who was the first to believe (2:5), the one whose faith preceded the faith of the disciples (2:11). Is it not in relation to this fact that in Jn 19:27 she can be designated as the mother of the Beloved Disciple? The latter, as we have seen. is the symbol of the ideal believer. Mary has heen the first to believe. She has believed from the very start. She has believed to the end. In fact, she is still there, at the foot of the cross, at the moment when the mission of Jesus is accomplished. Is it not precisely in this way that she is the mother of the faithful represented by the Beloved Disciple? Mary is the mother in this sense, that she has been the first to believe, she has been the one whose faith has, so to say, launched the mission which now is being achieved at the cross.

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Cana is the moment when the hour has not yet come, the moment when the mission is going to begin. There Mary. the mother, must give place to Mary, the woman, called to the leap of faith. The cross is the moment when the hour has come. the moment when the mission comes to an end. Mary, the faithful "woman", becomes again mother, but this time in the order of faith, in which order she has accepted to situate herself from the start. At Cana, insofar as she is the human mother of Jesus, Mary somehow loses a son. At the cross, insofar as she is a believer, Mary finds a multitude of sons. She has followed Jesus faithfully from beginning to end, from the first foreboding of the hour to its final accomplishment. No wonder that she finds again multiplied "a hundredfold" that which she had accepted to renounce. But she finds again all this because she believes.