And thou shalt say in thy heart:
Who hath begotten these?
I was barren and brought not forth,
led away, and captive:
and who hath brought up these?
I was destitute and alone:
and these, where were they?
Isaiah 49, 21

GIVE praise, O thou barren, that bearest not:
sing forth praise, and make a joyful noise,
thou that didst not travail with child:
for many are the children of the desolate,
more than of her that hath a husband,
saith the Lord.
Isaiah 54, 1

When Jesus had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved,
he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that, he saith to the disciple:
Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own.
John 19, 26-27

One of the most enigmatic statements in sacred Scripture is the one made by Jesus to his beloved Disciple from the Cross. Our Lord says to the disciple, “Behold your mother.” By the word mother, Jesus refers to the biblical sense of motherhood. His act of entrusting his mother to the disciple is based on the status and importance of motherhood in Israelite society. Motherhood, for the Jews, was more than just a biological expedient. Given the historical circumstances surrounding their covenant with God and His promise to Abraham, it was a social edifice that embraced God’s chosen people.

For instance, Ruth was enjoined by her mother-in-law Naomi to lay at the foot of the bed of her lord Boaz, who happened to be a relative of her deceased husband. Under the law of Moses, a close relation was expected to marry a widow to perpetuate the family name and keep all the assets, such as land, within the family (Deut 25:5-10). It was important that when a man died without having a son, a relative should marry a widow so that a son should be born within the family and its name carried on (Lk 20:27-40). Now, Ruth was childless when her husband died. But after she had married Boaz, the couple had a firstborn son whom they named Obed. The family name could now be carried on, and all the property kept within the family.

Ruth’s motherhood went beyond the immediate family as she was concerned about the interests of the extended family and its preservation. In Judaic religious thought, her motherhood was extended even further by embracing all the children of Israel. Although Ruth gave birth to Obed, her motherhood was not limited to him; it extended to David, her grandson, who became the King of Israel. Providentially, Ruth’s motherhood extended to King David, from whose royal line the Messiah would come. The Virgin Mary, who gave birth to Jesus Christ, is prefigured in this Hebrew matriarch, among others, because of her dual maternity.

Leila Leah Bronner introduced the “Metaphorical Mother” concept in her book Stories of Biblical Mothers: Maternal Power in the Hebrew Bible (University Press of America, 2004). This term refers to a woman who symbolically gives birth to and nurtures an entire population of children, even if they are not biologically related to her. For example, Ruth is considered a “Metaphorical Mother” because she is biologically linked to Obed, Jesse, and King David, who went on to rule over Israel. Socially, Ruth contributed to the birth and growth of a blossoming nation and the advancement of its people. Similarly, Sarah gave birth to Isaac, who begets Jacob, who represents Israel (Gen 12:2; 46:3). By giving birth to Isaac, she does, in a sense, give birth to the nation of Israel, redefining her motherhood. However, according to the Divine plan, Sarah’s role as a mother is not limited to national boundaries.

All three of God’s promises to Abraham were fulfilled in their primary context in the Old Testament. However, their secondary significance is fulfilled in the New Testament. The families (nations) of the earth that shall be blessed with the saved remnant of Israel as children (seed) of Abraham comprise the Gentiles. These Gentiles have been called to turn from their pagan iniquities now that Christ has risen from the dead, reconciling mankind to God (Acts 3:24-26). Only those who have faith (a steadfast love of God and trust in Him) are the genuine offspring of Abraham, both Jew and Gentile alike (Gal 3:7-9). Those baptized in Christ and have “put on Christ” by conducting their lives in faithfulness to God’s commandments are children of Abraham. There is neither Jew nor Greek among them. All who are faithful to God, by walking in the light as our Lord is in the light, are children of Abraham, not only the Jews who have been circumcised (Gal 3:26-29).

God made three promises to Abraham, which were fulfilled primarily through Jesus and his mother, Mary. Sarah played a crucial maternal role and prefigured Mary, the Matriarch of the new and everlasting Covenant established through her divine Son’s precious blood. Just as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob foreshadowed Jesus and his Church, Sarah foreshadowed Mary.

The first Jewish converts to Christianity recognized a connection between Sarah and Mary. This link is evident from St. Luke’s parallel between Isaac’s birth and Jesus’s. In Genesis 11, Sarah is introduced as the free wife of Abraham, and she gives birth to Isaac miraculously because she was barren and past the age of having children (Gen 17:17-18;18:10). God commanded that he be called Isaac (Gen 17:19). As the free wife of Abraham, Sarah stands in opposition to her slave woman Hagar, one of Abraham’s concubines. Although Sarah is barren, she advises that Abraham and her servant Hagar have a son whom they named Ishmael. However, Sarah later demands that Ishmael and his mother be sent away with his mother because of his foul behavior and that he must never have a share in her son Isaac’s inheritance (Gen 21:8-10). Isaac is destined to become the father of a great nation, Israel, in the person of his son Jacob.

In the Gospel of Luke, we read about Mary, the mother of the promised Son, the rightful heir and Head of the kingdom of heaven. She is the free spouse of the Holy Spirit, through whom she has been endowed with a fullness of grace (Lk 1:28). The purity of her soul and freedom from all stains of sin magnifies the Lord (Luke 1:46). Together with the free Son of promise, she is at enmity with Satan. She stands against all his offspring: sinful and wicked humanity (Gen 3:15). Although Mary is a virgin, she miraculously conceives and gives birth to Jesus, her only son (Lk 1:35). Similar to Sarah, she questions how she could conceive him, as she never has sexual relations with a man: “I know not (a) man” (Lk 1:34). However, despite her perpetual virginity, she is destined to conceive and bear a son who shall be called Jesus by God’s command (Lk1:31). He shall rule all nations from the throne that he inherits from his ancestor David, and his kingdom shall never end. As Isaac has begotten Israel, Jesus shall beget the Church and reign over Jacob’s descendants, his co-heirs, forever (Lk 1:32-33).

Throughout the Bible, there is a recurring theme of the Free Woman of Promise. This theme appears in various passages from Genesis 3 to Revelation 12. God chose Sarah to be a matriarch of the Israelites, not just as the biological mother of Isaac and maternal head of the extended family but also as the Matriarch of the Covenant. She was called to actively collaborate with God in the birth of a nation from which the Messiah would come to reconcile humanity to God. Other matriarchs of the Hebrews contributed to the salvation of God’s chosen people by collaborating faithfully with Him. These heroines helped to liberate the Israelites from bondage and saved them from impending death at the hands of their enemies and captors.

Three women in the Judaic tradition are highly praised. They are Esther, Jael, and Judith. These women and Sarah symbolize the Virgin Mary’s maternal role in the salvation story. Their courageous actions are fulfilled in Mary’s association with her divine Son in his redemptive work. Jael and Judith both strike heroic blows for Israel by cutting off the heads of their enemies’ chieftains, Sisera and Holofernes, under God’s guidance. These women are praised and considered blessed above all women because of their saving acts in union with God. All generations of Jews will follow suit (Jdgs 5:24-27; Jdt 13:18-20; 15:9-10) and praise them.

Mary collaborates with God to crush the head of the serpent, which is Satan. She does this by humbly and faithfully consenting to be the mother of the divine Messiah and suffering at the foot of the Cross in union with the afflictions of her Son. Her suffering also helps to give temporal satisfaction to God for the sins of alienated humanity and to liberate it from the slavery of sin and the power of the hostile enemy  (Lk 1:38; 2:35). Through her Fiat, she brings the living Font of redemptive grace into the world, and by His merits, all people shall be reconciled to God and restored to friendship with Him. God fulfills His promise to Abraham of regenerating mankind in Christ and delivering all souls from eternal spiritual death and separation from the Beatific Vision of God through Mary’s womb. Elizabeth recognizes Mary’s faith, charity, and grace. She pronounces her blessed above all women (Lk 1:42). All generations of the Christian faithful shall also bless Mary because of the great things God has done for her in their collaboration (Lk 1:48-49).

Esther and her people are captured and enslaved by King Ahasuerus (Xerxes). Despite her reluctance, the king chooses Esther to be his wife and queen of Persia because of her exceptional beauty. According to the Talmud, Esther is a righteous woman who observes the Torah and is already married to Mordechai. Hence, she abhors the thought of being the wife of an evil Gentile who has enslaved the Israelites. However, she is forced to comply with the king’s wishes and to lay with him whenever he summons her to his bed chamber. Meanwhile, all Hebrew captives have been condemned to death through the schemes of Haman the Agagite, the king’s highest official, except for Esther because she is the king’s wife. After a heartfelt prayer to God (Est C:12-30, NAB), Queen Esther manages to foil Haman’s plot by taking advantage of her privilege despite risking her own life. Esther saves her people from certain death. In wrath, the king orders Haman to be hanged by the neck on the gallows (Est 7:6-10).

Mary, as the anti-type of Esther, is exempt from the corruption of physical death and the dark prospect of eternal spiritual death that results from original sin. This sin was brought about by the devil’s machinations (Gen 3:14). God has preserved Mary free from the stain of original sin and exempted her from being born under the law of sin and death. This ensures that she will be the worthiest of mothers for the Son and assist Him in defeating the world’s chief enemy, Satan, thus delivering mankind from slavery to sin and impending death. Through Mary’s faithful and valiant Fiat, the King of Kings claims the final victory over the chief enemy of God’s people and his works (Rom 8:37; 1 Cor 15:57; 2 Cor 2:14, etc.). Now in Heaven, Mary dons her crown and reigns enthroned as Queen with our Lord and King. The faithful continue to make war with the dragon in their spiritual battle against it together with her (Rev 12:17). Our Lady has been chosen by our Lord and King because she is the fairest woman in all of humanity (Lk 1:28, 42).

Behold thy Son, Behold thy Mother

When Jesus spoke to his mother, Mary, from the Cross, he called her “Woman.” In Palestine during his time, Jewish men usually addressed their mothers as “Immah” in public to honor them in observance of Mosaic law. However, Jesus did not address his mother in this way. Instead, he referred to Mary as a mother to others when he said to the Disciple, “Behold your mother.” This means that Jesus was not thinking of Mary only as his natural mother but also as a spiritual mother to others. Jesus was addressing his mother in a biblical sense, referring to her as the free Woman of Promise foretold to the serpent by God in the Garden of Eden. Mary was the one who would crush the serpent’s head with her faith, working through love for the spiritual benefit of humanity. (Genesis 3:15; Luke 11:27-28).

Indeed, our Lord is affirming his mother to be in her person the culmination of all the Hebrew Matriarchs who have gone before her, beginning with Sarah and the promises God made to Abraham, of which his wife had a vital role to play in the economy of salvation in anticipation of the Incarnation. While his precious blood is being poured out for the remission of sin, it is from the Cross that Jesus declares his mother to be the Matriarch of the New and Everlasting Covenant and the spiritual mother or second Eve of redeemed humanity.

Through the Cross, our Lord redefines Mary’s motherhood as the Mother of all Nations, who nourishes fallen humanity with the redemptive fruit of her womb – the body and blood of her divine Son. Mary acts as the caregiver of all human souls and feeds and nourishes her spiritual offspring, the “true manna come down from heaven” and “the bread of life” (Jn 6:35, 51, 58), with the Cross standing ever-present before her. Jesus affirms and ratifies Mary’s maternal saving office as he speaks to his mother and the disciple from the Cross.

The Church was founded on Calvary, and it is there that Mary’s saving role was established until the end of time. As the Mother of the Church, Mary fulfills her maternal duty by nourishing and strengthening all of Christ’s followers with the “Word for childhood” and the graces that her Son has earned for them. The bond Jesus created between his mother and his disciples is related to his Messianic reign and everything he has accomplished for humanity. His words to Mary and the Disciple point to his resurrection, his ascension into heaven, and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4).

The couplet “Behold your son – Behold your mother” holds a significant meaning related to the end times. Therefore, when Jesus tells the Disciple, “Behold your mother,” he is not just asking a friend to do him a favor before he leaves. Jesus does not intend solely or mainly for the Disciple to look after his mother once he is gone, although he does care about her well-being. This couplet’s underlying power and structure refute the notion of such an ordinary or practical last will and testament. We must remember that every word spoken by our Lord and recorded in the Gospels carries soteriological weight, either explicitly or implicitly.

In John’s gospel, we see how Jesus entrusts his mother to the care of his beloved disciple in his final moments on the cross. John emphasizes the importance of this event by constructing a couplet that conveys the gravity of the situation. He wants his readers to understand that this is not simply a request from a dying man to his friend but rather an act of divine providence integral to the plan of salvation. Although Jesus loves his mother deeply and wants to ensure her well-being, he also recognizes her crucial role in the redemption of mankind. By entrusting her to John’s care, he redefines her role as a mother and recognizes her perseverance in faith. This act reminds us that all of us are called to take up our crosses and follow Christ, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

On Mount Moriah, Abraham’s faith was tested by God, and his fatherhood was redefined at the altar of the holocaust (Gen 22:16-18). Similarly, on the same mount, also known as Golgotha, God incarnate redefined Mary’s motherhood from the Cross because of her faith in charity and grace. Jesus had her moral participation in his redemptive work in mind, and Mary’s spiritual motherhood of the redeemed was based on her co-redemptive role, which began at the Annunciation.

The couplet “Woman, behold your son – Behold your mother” is spoken with a sense of authority and carries a Divine decree. Jesus, in his moment of agony for our sins, utters the word “Woman,” which draws our attention to his mother, Mary, who is standing at the foot of the Cross. This word redefines Mary’s motherhood and her role in the Divine plan of salvation. The temporal circumstance in which Mary finds herself as the mother of Jesus is of little concern to the Evangelist. Instead, the author first draws attention to the fact that Mary is the woman promised by God who will crush the head of the serpent through her faith and cooperation with God. Only then does the author turn our attention to the Disciple to clarify what Jesus means by calling his mother “Woman” instead of “Mother” (Immah) and how she relates to all the faithful in the order of grace. This literary device is known as constructive or synthetic parallelism in modern biblical exegesis.

It is not Mary’s physical motherhood of Jesus that is most significant, but rather her new spiritual relationship with the Disciple. This relationship is denoted by her title. Now that Jesus has completed his mission, Mary’s role as mother to him becomes less prominent. She does not become the mother of the Disciple after he takes her into his home, but at the foot of the Cross, where she stands with him. Through the Cross, Mary becomes the Disciple’s mother, playing a painful intercessory role in her Son’s redemptive work. This granted her the ability to intercede for the temporal remission of sin.

Among all of Jesus’ disciples, only John dared to stand beneath the cross where Jesus was crucified, along with Mary, the mother of Jesus. As a result of his faith, John became a spiritual offspring of Mary, and she became his mother. From the cross, Jesus designated Mary as the mother of his true disciples. This is symbolized by John’s presence beneath the cross with Mary, as the other disciples had abandoned Jesus and assumed he was dead despite his prophecies. Therefore, John’s presence beneath the cross was not incidental but somewhat symbolic.

For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor,
anguish as of one bringing forth her first child,
the cry of daughter Zion gasping for breath,
stretching out her hands,
“Woe is me! I am fainting before killers!”
Jeremiah 4, 31

The sorrowful scene at the Cross is filled with Old Testament imagery and symbolism related to prophecy and Judaic traditions. Isaiah 49:21, 54:1-3, and 66:7-11 carry the theme of Mother Zion grieving for the loss of her children. Suddenly, she is given a new and large family, restored in God’s grace, which causes rejoicing (Lk 1:46-49; Zeph 3:14-17). According to Raymond E. Brown, “The sorrowful scene at the foot of the Cross represents the birth pangs by which the Spirit of salvation is brought forth (Isaiah 26:17-18) and handed over (John 19:30). By becoming the mother of the beloved disciple (the Christian), Mary symbolically evokes Lady Zion, who, after experiencing birth pangs (interior agony or sorrow), brings forth a new people in joy” (The Gospel According to John, Garden City: Double Day & Co., 1966). Mary can compare her former desolation beneath the Cross with the bustling activity of returnees from exile filling her towns and cities, as in the figure of Mother Zion. The returnees from the Babylonian exile foreshadow all believers in Christ who have been freed from the bondage of sin and impending eternal death.

In his commentary on the book of Isaiah, Paul D. Hanson suggests that Zion, which suffered greatly due to the loss of her Son, will not remain in grief forever. Instead, she will witness the return of her people from exile and see her towns and cities bustling with activity once again. The three references to children in this passage represent the repopulation of Zion by these returnees  (Isaiah 40-66: A Bible Commentary, Westminster John Knox Press, 1995). This foreshadows all believers in Christ who have been redeemed by His precious blood, but at the cost of His mother’s great sorrow and anguish at the foot of the cross (Rev 12:4).

Enlarge the place of thy tent,
and stretch out the skins of thy tabernacles,
spare not: lengthen thy cords,
and strengthen thy stakes.
For thou shalt pass on to the right hand, and to the left:
and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles,
and shall inhabit the desolate cities.
Isaiah 54, 2-3

The particle “Behold” (Greek: Idou, Hebrew: Hinneh) sometimes indicates existence or points out something for clarification. Hinneh clauses emphasize the immediacy of a situation and are often used to introduce a fact or something actual on which a subsequent statement or command is based. Significantly, most hinneh clauses occur in direct speech and must be closely observed. For example, Genesis 30:3, “Behold (here is) Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that I too can have a family by her,” uses hinneh to introduce Bilhah as a servant. When Jesus says, “Here is your mother” to the Disciple, he means that Mary is as much of a mother to him as Bilhah is a servant of Rachel. Mary, the handmaid of the Lord, says, “Behold, I am (here is) the handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:38), emphasizing her immediate acceptance of God’s will.

Mary did not become John’s mother in a literal sense by living with him and managing the household. Instead, she became his mother spiritually and mystically, along with Christ’s other disciples. Mary became the mother of John and her son’s followers just as she became God’s handmaid and spouse of the Holy Spirit through God’s will.

Your sun will never set again,
and your moon will wane no more;
the LORD will be your everlasting light,
and your days of sorrow will end.
Then all your people will be righteous
and they will possess the land forever.
They are the shoot I have planted,
the work of my hands,
for the display of my splendor.
Isaiah 60, 20-21

In the books of Matthew and Mark, there is a statement, “Behold your mother,” which is similar to the theological theme found in John 19:25-27. These verses deal with being a “brethren of Jesus.” The main point in these passages is that obedience to the will of God is more important than blood relations. Jesus does not deny or disrespect his relationship with his mother, but he puts it second to a higher bond of kinship that goes beyond biological ties. Jesus considers Mary his true mother because of her faith in God, which is a tremendous blessing to her (Lk 11:27-28). When the crowd draws Jesus’s attention to the presence of his mother and relatives outside, he has both the Annunciation and Crucifixion in mind. These represent the expansion of boundaries and the inclusion of Gentiles in the New Dispensation of grace. Our heavenly Father’s family was not meant to be limited to Israel and the Jews alone.

The Kingdom of Heaven requires a high level of personal commitment from its disciples, which can sometimes surpass even natural family ties and ethnic bonds. In response to a question, Jesus indicated that he views his mother as more of a mother to him because of her faith. Without her faith, she could not have become his natural mother in the hypostatic order of his incarnation, nor would she have been able to mother all of his disciples in the spiritual family of God. Mary herself is a disciple of her son, just like John and the other apostles, and by being a fellow disciple (the first and foremost), she can be their spiritual mother. She collaborates with her mystical spouse, the Holy Spirit, to lead them in fulfilling their great commission after her son’s ascension.

These two verses introduce the concept of a new family that transcends the national bond that connects the listeners surrounding Jesus, taking on an eschatological aspect. These passages serve as a prelude to our Lord’s intentions when he addresses his mother and the disciple from the Cross. Using the same hinneh clause, he emphasizes that his mother, Mary, is genuinely a mother in the economy of salvation, leaving no room for misunderstanding. She will not be like a mother to the Disciple, but instead, she will be his actual mother from then on in the Kingdom of Heaven, as he shall be her son, just like Jesus is physically, albeit in a spiritual sense. The Church is our mother, but only in an allegorical sense. Our Blessed Lady is our personal mother, having conceived and given birth to Jesus, our Lord, and brother (Rom 8:29).

During his active ministry, Jesus began to redefine Israel as Mother Zion’s figure with his mother, Mary, in mind. He aimed to establish a family of faith that would extend beyond national boundaries or birthright and instead be defined by faith. This new vision of Zion would be fulfilled in the New Zion or Church, which would receive the Gentiles into God’s family kingdom. This vision of Zion is not just a metaphor. It reaches its secondary fulfillment in the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, and Mother of the Church. Through her, all the faithful can relate to their mother personally, just as they relate to their Lord and brother, her resurrected divine Son, in filial prayer and devotion. Together, they are members of His Mystical Body.

“For if Mary, as those declare who with sound mind extol her, had no other son but
Jesus, and yet Jesus says to His mother, Woman, behold thy son,’ and not Behold
you have this son also,’ then He virtually said to her, Lo, this is Jesus, whom thou
didst bear.’ Is it not the case that everyone who is perfect lives himself no longer, but
Christ lives in him; and if Christ lives in him, then it is said of him to Mary, Behold thy son Christ.’”
Origen, Commentary on John, I:6
(A.D. 232)

So, the ransomed of the LORD shall return,
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Isaiah 51,11