What Did the Virgin Mary Do When Jesus Was Crucified?

[redrosetea]

She opened her arms and her heart to recite we sinners as her beloved children…That is a great deal more than we deserve s,since we nailed Christ to the cross, for our sins

She loved us despite ourselves, for the sake of Her son…that is a great deal

 

[puzzleannie]

It disturbs me that this passive creature is held up as the Ideal Woman.

I know that my own mother would not have just stood by while I (or one of her other children) was crucified. She was not a stupid or violent person so I doubt she would have tried physically rescuing me.

But she might have tried pleading with Pilate, bribing a guard (to help me escape), or even just smuggling something in to me. She would definitely have done SOMETHING.

well I am a mother and if I knew my child had to undergo these things to fulfill a divine plan I would let God’s will, not mine be done. The last thing I would do would be to try and micromanage my adult child’s life after he himself had made such a decision.

 

[inkaneer]

What (if anything) did the Virgin Mary do when her son Jesus Christ was crucified?

For that matter, what did the Mother of God do when Jesus was publicly humiliated and tormented before his execution?

She cried. Now, whether those tears were tears of anguish from a widowed mother losing her only son or tears of joy from a intimate participant in the Incarnation knowing that now, finally, the price is paid, death is conquered and salvation has indeed come to all mankind. I think both.

 

[patrick457]

well I am a mother and if I knew my child had to undergo these things to fulfill a divine plan I would let God’s will, not mine be done. The last thing I would do would be to try and micromanage my adult child’s life after he himself had made such a decision.

Amen.

 

[Good_Fella]

Our Blessed Mother stood erect firmly grounded in faith archetypically of the Church in the face of what could be described as a hopeless circumstance by the unfaithful. I am sure the martyrs of the Church envisioned Mary at the foot of the Cross when it was time for them to participate in the Passion and Death of our Lord. When they gazed at the Cross before their eyes as impending death approached, the martyrs certainly drew strength by picturing in their minds the crucified One. But they also saw themselves, mere creatures, in the person of Mary, who exemplified how firmly rooted in faith we should stand when confronted by the cross and drew courage from her, whose agony was incomparably greater having arisen out of a disinterested mother’s love for her son. She truly is the Queen of Martyrs.

“And you yourself a sword shall pierce, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
Luke 2, 35

 

[Debora123]

Jesus didn’t need any help escaping crucifixion. He is God. He chose to be crucified. He could have prevented it or gotten out if He wanted to. Mary knew this and she understood exactly what was going on.

 

[Good_Fella]

It disturbs me that this passive creature is held up as the Ideal Woman.

Neither Mary nor any Christian is passive in God’s plan of salvation. We all have an active role to perform to help bring about our salvation and that of others through prayer and sacrifice. It took a tremendous act of faith on Mary’s part to help save the world from sin and death by willingly bearing a Son fathered by God through the Holy Spirit and offering him up as a sacrifice of blood for the expiation of sin conjointly with the Father.

“There is one Physician, having both flesh and spirit, born and unborn, God become man, true life in death, from Mary and from God, first passible and then impassible – Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Ignatius of Antioch, To the Ephesians 7, 2 [c. A.D. 110]

If Mary had the power to somehow rescue her Son and managed to save him, the human race would not have been redeemed. As a devout Jew, Mary must have been familiar with the prophet Isaiah’s Songs of the Suffering Servant (42-53) and thus could perceive the redemptive merits of our Lord’s passion and death. Her intervention would have prevented Christ’s glorious resurrection from the dead as the firstfruits. Mary also must have heard what Jesus had alluded to about his imminent death, so she knew she was in no position to interfere with her Son’s divine mission. The last thing she would ever have done was prevent her Son from gloriously rising from the dead and thereby the redemption of our own bodies on the last day.

“Stop your ears, therefore, when anyone speaks to you of anything except Jesus Christ, David’s descendant and Mary’s Son, who was truly born, and ate, and drank; who was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate, truly crucified and died, in the sight of heaven and earth and under the earth; who also truly rose from the dead, his Father raising him up – this same Father who will likewise raise us who believe in him as well, through Jesus Christ, apart from whom we do not have true life.”

• To the Trallians 9, 1-2*

As God’s co-pilot (co-Redemptrix), Mary had to follow orders in order to actively function properly for the sake of a greater good. She had to be relatively passive so that she could act for our benefit in the divine plan of human redemption. A sword had indeed pierced her soul when she stood before the cross and witnessed her Son’s agonizing death in satisfaction for our sins. (Lk 2:35). Mary was no ordinary mother, but the one to the paschal Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. As a devout Jew, she understood the expiatory value of the Judaic paschal sacrifices and saw their ultimate fulfillment in the sacrificial death of her Son. In no way could Mary have brought herself to act in discordance with the will of God the Father and forfeit the grace of salvation. If passivity means refusing to resist the will of God (the act of faith), then so be it. It’s all for the greater good.

“He was born of Mary the fair ewe.”
Melito de Sardo, Easter Homily [c.A.D. 177]

And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”
Luke 24, 25-26

PAX :heaven:

 

[Ismael]

It disturbs me that this passive creature is held up as the Ideal Woman.

I know that my own mother would not have just stood by while I (or one of her other children) was crucified. She was not a stupid or violent person so I doubt she would have tried physically rescuing me.

But she might have tried pleading with Pilate, bribing a guard (to help me escape), or even just smuggling something in to me. She would definitely have done SOMETHING.

Forgetting for a moment the theological arguments (e.g. "she understood her son’s mission, etc…) let’s think with LOGIC:

1- **What could Mary do?! **She was only a peasant-woman, hardly worthy the attention of Pilate.
Remember:
-She was a woman (whose opinion was less worthy of a man, gender equality was not as important as it is now)
-She was NOT a Roman (and Romans often viewed non-Romans as less worthy human beings)
Do you think the soldiers would have even consider slightly to let her near Pilate to plea?

Nor it is that easy to bribe a guard a spring a prisoner from captivity.She was a woman not an X-man
It’s not easy to rescue someone from capticity and Mary and the other disciples were peasants, not soldiers, nor S.A.S. or Navy Seals.

Let’s be realistic… There are limits to what a person can do. This applies double for a first century woman against the Roman empire and an angry mob.

2- What could your mother do for you?
Probably very little if Obama wanted to torture you and kill you and such practices were not uncommon in this day (as they were not uncommon under Roman rule).
She could mount a protest, at best…
Of course these days we have ideals like ‘gender equality’ and ‘rights’ which at that time did not really exist.

Today we hace the right to protest… at the time you only had the duty to “shut the hades up” especially if you were not a Roman citizen

If I was a Roman governor and I wanted you crucified… and especially a violent one like Pilate was (he was reprimanded by Rome itself for being too harsh) it’d more likely that at best I’d ignore your mother completely and at worst I’d crucify her next to you if I had a bad day.

3- With no doubt she DID plea and cry, like any mother would. Yet the evangelists did only mention she was at Jesus’ side when he died but did not specify anything else… yet this does not mean she did not try tried, in her own way, to save her son’s life, with no avail, of course.

 

[Maureen1125]

Since the Gospel tells us what Mary did, this question does not really interest me. I am however interested in why you are “Angry” as you Screen Name states. What are you Angry about? Why are you an “Angry Atheist” yet your posted religious affiliation is “Agnostic”?

 

[porthos11]

It disturbs me that this passive creature is held up as the Ideal Woman.

I know that my own mother would not have just stood by while I (or one of her other children) was crucified. She was not a stupid or violent person so I doubt she would have tried physically rescuing me.

But she might have tried pleading with Pilate, bribing a guard (to help me escape), or even just smuggling something in to me. She would definitely have done SOMETHING.

Looks like someone needs to do some reading on the Roman Army.

 

[porthos11]

Forgetting for a moment the theological arguments (e.g. "she understood her son’s mission, etc…) let’s think with LOGIC:

1- **What could Mary do?! **She was only a peasant-woman, hardly worthy the attention of Pilate.
Remember:
-She was a woman (whose opinion was less worthy of a man, gender equality was not as important as it is now)
-She was NOT a Roman (and Romans often viewed non-Romans as less worthy human beings)
Do you think the soldiers would have even consider slightly to let her near Pilate to plea?

Nor it is that easy to bribe a guard a spring a prisoner from captivity.She was a woman not an X-man
It’s not easy to rescue someone from capticity and Mary and the other disciples were peasants, not soldiers, nor S.A.S. or Navy Seals.

Let’s be realistic… There are limits to what a person can do. This applies double for a first century woman against the Roman empire and an angry mob.

2- What could your mother do for you?
Probably very little if Obama wanted to torture you and kill you and such practices were not uncommon in this day (as they were not uncommon under Roman rule).
She could mount a protest, at best…
Of course these days we have ideals like ‘gender equality’ and ‘rights’ which at that time did not really exist.

Today we hace the right to protest… at the time you only had the duty to “shut the hades up” especially if you were not a Roman citizen

If I was a Roman governor and I wanted you crucified… and especially a violent one like Pilate was (he was reprimanded by Rome itself for being too harsh) it’d more likely that at best I’d ignore your mother completely and at worst I’d crucify her next to you if I had a bad day.

3- With no doubt she DID plea and cry, like any mother would. Yet the evangelists did only mention she was at Jesus’ side when he died but did not specify anything else… yet this does not mean she did not try tried, in her own way, to save her son’s life, with no avail, of course.

If one only sees an Arab funeral (not those of dead militants but an honest-to-goodness family burial) one would have some idea what our Lady did. She must have cried her heart out will the full-blown middle-eastern wailing that just cuts through to the heart of those who hear. Something like how she did it in “Jesus of Nazareth” but most likely.

 

[TimothyH]

Having held my daughter in my arms when she died I can tell you exactly what Mary did.

She said, “Jesus I love you. I know you are ready and it’s OK if you want to go now. Go to sleep now. Goodnight my son.”

-Tim-

 

[AngryAtheist8]

Looks like someone needs to do some reading on the Roman Army.

Even if the Roman army was completely efficient and ruthless, that doesn’t mean a mourning mother couldn’t have done something. Especially if she was the ‘most perfect’ creature ever (as Mary supposedly is).

 

[gatewood1988]

I personally think the best example of what she might have done was in The Passion of The Christ movie. It brings me to tears everytime I watch it when I see our Blessed Mother remembering Jesus as a child when He fell down. You could feel her heart breaking throughout every scene she is in. I myself am not a mother (yet) but knowing what my mother went through with trying to make sure we always had enough even if she went without, I couldn’t imagine what Mary went through, not only as a mother, but as the Mother of God. She is far from weak in my opinion. She is the epitome of selfless motherly love and of complete surrender to God. In the days of Jesus, women had very little influence, if any so what she did was amazing, going along the way of the cross with Him. The fact that she was at the foot of the cross watching her son die but still heeding His words makes her a very strong person in my book. We need to be more like her by heeding Jesus’ words no matter how bad our situation may seem or how helpless we feel to change anything.

 

[Good_Fella]

Even if the Roman army was completely efficient and ruthless, that doesn’t mean a mourning mother couldn’t have done something. Especially if she was the ‘most perfect’ creature ever (as Mary supposedly is).

The most perfect creature ever made couldn’t possibly have attempted to foil God’s work of redemption. With the gift of knowledge Mary had received from the Holy Spirit, she knew better than to interfere with God’s plan.

She is instructress in the understanding of God.
Wisdom 8, 4

PAX :heaven:

 

[Della]

Even if the Roman army was completely efficient and ruthless, that doesn’t mean a mourning mother couldn’t have done something. Especially if she was the ‘most perfect’ creature ever (as Mary supposedly is).

Are you trying to say she should have thrown herself onto the soldiers’ spears to save her Son? That’s what would have happened if she had tried to interfere. You wanted Mary to be killed too? What would that have accomplished? She could have screamed imprecations at those killing her Son, and what good would would it have done? What power do you think she had as a perfect person? If her Son wouldn’t call on the angels to save him, you think she should have? What, and go against his own wishes–defeat his purpose? Do you think human love the highest form of love? That mother love is greater than any other love? Just what are you trying to say by saying she should have done something? We can’t read your mind, dear friend. Just come right out and tell us.

 

[inkaneer]

Even if the Roman army was completely efficient and ruthless, that doesn’t mean a mourning mother couldn’t have done something. Especially if she was the ‘most perfect’ creature ever (as Mary supposedly is).

Obviously being an atheist you probably are immune to understanding the Incarnation. Mary was a willing participant in the plan of God to bring salvation to mankind. As an atheist that is a whole lot of nothing to you. But, understanding the Incarnation is key to understanding Mary and what she probably did at the crucifixion. Mary didn’t have to do anything at the Crucifixion but witness the culmination of her participation in the Incarnation. This was not a death signifying defeat. It was a cross of victory over death. Still I think she cried. I stated exactly that in post 23 wherein I wrote:

“She cried. Now, whether those tears were tears of anguish from a widowed mother losing her only son or tears of joy from a intimate participant in the Incarnation knowing that now, finally, the price is paid, death is conquered and salvation has indeed come to all mankind. I think both.”

 

[Matt86]

It disturbs me that this passive creature is held up as the Ideal Woman.

I know that my own mother would not have just stood by while I (or one of her other children) was crucified. She was not a stupid or violent person so I doubt she would have tried physically rescuing me.

But she might have tried pleading with Pilate, bribing a guard (to help me escape), or even just smuggling something in to me. She would definitely have done SOMETHING.

But this is the Woman who had always said ‘Yes’ to God in her life, from the anunciation onwards. If her Son was willing to accept the cup the Father placed before Him, then it follows His Blessed Mother would also accept it.

 

[FCEGM]

But this is the Woman who had always said ‘Yes’ to God in her life, from the anunciation onwards. If her Son was willing to accept the cup the Father placed before Him, then it follows His Blessed Mother would also accept it.

:yup: Not unlike - in fact the perfection of - Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

 

[Good_Fella]

:yup: Not unlike - in fact the perfection of - Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

“In your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing – all this because you obeyed my command.”*
Genesis 22, 18*