Lest You Remain

that there fit Christ’s words on the Cross, the words referring to the Apostle John, referring to a man: “Behold, your son!” (cf. Jn 19:26). Dear brothers and sisters: let us constantly return, with our vocation, with our consecration, to the depths of the Paschal Mystery. Let us present ourselves at Christ’s Cross next to his Mother. Let us learn our vocation from her. Did not Christ himself say: “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sis- ter, and mother” (Mt 12:50)? From Founder’s Writings (excerpts from Orator Crucifixus [Crucified Preacher]) WORD III OF THE CRUCIFIED ORATOR “He said to his mother, ‘Woman, there is your son.’ In turn he said to the dis- ciple, ‘There is your Mother’” (John 19: [26-27]). The most merciful Virgin Mary is the Mother of sinners. They, in the person of John, were given to her as sons by the Redeemer. I congratulate the pure John, that the Lord, before His Death on the Cross, entrusted to him, a virgin, the care of His Virgin Mother. At the same time, I am very happy, that in the person of John, all the sinners were offered as sons, to this most merciful Mother of God. Cornelius, a learned commentator on the Holy Bible, turns to the Mother of God, as though in the name of Christ, with these words, “O Mother! From now on, become a brave and magnanimous woman. In the place of me, be the foundation, the rock and the pillar of My Church, to support it with your might, to drive away and disperse with your perseverance, counsel and prayer, the storms of attacks rising against it, not only now but in the future, for centuries, till the end of the world.” Remain hopeful, sinners! The crucified Jesus hands over His Church to His most merciful Mother. And I have in mind the Church “in which—as Gregory the Great accounts—the good are mixed with the bad, the condemned with the chosen.” We should assume that, in this way, our Lord entrusted in the person of John, to the Virgin even you, the evil ones, together with the good: He gave Her to you as a mer- ciful Mother. “Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, there is (pointing to any one of us, both good and bad) your son. In turn he said to the disciple: (undeniably any man, the just together with the sinner) ‘There is your Mother’.” /.../ The thing worth remembering, and not at all alien to my statement, was written down by the Apostle-Prophet in the twelve chapter of his Revelation. He talks there L EST Y OU R EMAIN W ITHOUT W ORK IN THE V INEYARD OF THE L ORD 64