Spirituality of the Religious Life According to St. Stanislaus Papczyński 168 Death, and she participated in the passion of “the Son of the eternal Father, and also hers.” When “Christ suffered the ignominy of this wound [His pierced heart – note by A.P.], all of the pain pierced the Blessed Virgin Mary, who felt it no differently than if her own side and heart had been stabbed. Therefore, consider that you owe much to the Son, but also not a little to the Mother.” This exceptional and special unity was never broken and “after his most glorious Resurrection, the Redeemer appeared first to his most holy Mother and filled and refreshed her with joys and heavenly delights that were as great as the sorrows that had afflicted and tormented her at the time of his Passion were heavy.”23 Consequently, Papczyński concludes that this special relationship between Mary and Christ comes from the will of God Himself, because “He respects the Mother so much that he does not want her to be without the Son, nor the Son without the Mother.”24 Papczyński discovers the source of Mary’s maternal presence in the life of a Christian in Christ’s decision personally expressed during His passion. The Marian Founder finds particularly eloquent the entrustment of His Mother to the disciple described by St. John (Jn 19:26). This passage appears in his written works as a key-moment in which the Savior’s will is manifested for Mary to become the Mother of all of His disciples. This is the moment of Christ’s “entrusting the disciple to the Mother as a son, and the most chaste Mother to the most chaste disciple as aMother.”25 Christ’s decisionmade on the cross 23 IC, Saturday morning, pts. 1-2, Sunday morning, pt. 3; cf. Matka Boża Bolesna w nauczaniu o. Stanisława Papczyńskiego (1631-1701), “Salvatoris Mater” 6(2004) No. 2, p. 151. 24 IC, Feast of the Holy Innocents, BHC, pt. 1. 25 IC, Friday morning, pt. 3. The same biblical excerpt that Papczyński discusses in his short work called The Crucified Orator, only doing so in a pastorally enlarged manner: to “… John, […] our Lord, dying on the Cross, entrusted His VirginMother. At the same time, I greatly rejoice that all kinds of sinners were entrusted as sons to the same most lovingMother of God through the person of John. Indeed, Cornelius, the learned commentator on the Divine Word, addressing the Most Holy Mother in these words, as if speaking for Christ: “OMother! 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
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==