705 the third word God through the person of John. Indeed, Cornelius, the learned commentator on the Divine Word, addresses the Most Holy Mother in these words, as if speaking for Christ: “O Mother! Henceforth, be a courageous and magnanimous woman: In my stead, be the foundation, the rock, and the pillar of My Church, so as to avert and disperse the storms of trials arising against Her [i.e., the Church] by your steadiness, counsel, and prayer — not only now, but ever hereafter for all centuries to come, until the end of the world.”38 Sinners, take courage! The crucified Jesus entrusts His Church to His sweetest Mother: I say, that Church, “in which,” on the testimony of Gregory the Great, “evil men with good men, reprobate with the elect, have been mixed together.”39 For it must be realized that in this way our Lord commended you, the evil men, and the good ones to the Virgin in the person of John: He gave her to you as a gracious Mother. “He said to His Mother, ‘Woman, behold,’” (pointing to each one of us, the good as well as the evil), “‘your son.’ Afterwards, [He said] to the disciple: (no doubt, to each man, the just as well as the sinner) ‘Behold your Mother.’” Hence, the very devout Richard of Saint-Laurent,40 a remarkable venerator of the Mother of God, remarking on the place where she stood beneath the Cross of Jesus, very clearly corroborates my own thought in these words: “Christ, as He was dying, had her,” namely, His Most Immaculate Mother, “to His north, which signifies sinners. It is as if He was saying that with her as mediator, He would extend His merciful right hand to frozen [i.e., hardened] 38 CLCE, t. IV, p. 448. 39 This exact text was not able to be found in the Opera Omnia of St. Gregory, but similar texts were found in at least three places. Cf. PL 76, Opera Omnia S. Gregorii Papae I, cognomento Magni, n. 1009, col. 589; n. 1637, col. 1285; n. 1638, col. 1286. 40 Cf. Piolanti, Antonio, Riccardo di San Lorenzo, in: ECat X, 861-862, where we read that he was a theologian of the 13th century, and wrote, among other things, Mariale or De laudibus B.M.V. libri XII.
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