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But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed.

[In the Name of the Father, and of...]

Dear Friends in Christ,

In the thousands of years that came and went between the time of Adam and the time of Jesus Christ, there were many great men and women in the eyes of God. The pages of the Old Testament are filled with accounts of heroism, of self-sacrifice, of faith put to the test, and of evil conquered. The trust of Noah, the obedience of Abraham, the strength of Moses, the holiness of Ruth, the courage of Judith - these giants of faith strode across the landscape of God's Covenant, putting His enemies to flight, bringing His people to their senses, and alive in their hearts, the promise of God's redemption.

But as great as they were, and many more like them, none was worthy to be the Savior of Mankind - none was capable of the depth of sacrifice that the Father required of the One who was to break the bonds of death - none was without the stain of sin, none possessed the purity of selflessness, the perfect love necessary to remake the bridge between Heaven and earth.

We know this, not only because we read it, but because we know human nature - we know our own natures - we know that no matter how immense a deed of holiness we might be capable of, in the background of our beings, there is imperfection, there is selfishness, there is resentment or jealousy or covetousness - there is the desire to do away with our enemies, to display our might, and to exalt over the victories we achieve. Not even the greatest of human philanthropists, the most visionary of earth's optimists, nor even the hardest-working of the Church's saints are without these faults. And even the slightest realization of the smallest of these faults, is enough to come between the love of God for His children, and the desire of those children to love the Father in return.

In the face of this fact of human history, it is blindingly clear, that only from the un-fractured love of the Creator Himself, could a being be produced with the capability of giving all, without wishing to keep something for Himself - and that is the summation of who Christ Jesus was - Love capable of giving all, and keeping nothing for Its Self.

The only similar example that we find in human history is the person of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, who in order to be made fitting to receive in her body, this perfect love, was herself conceived without the marks of human sin. In her, the same selflessness, the same total love of God is beheld - but her task was not death, but life - to live and be a mother - a mother to our Lord, and a mother to His Church.

It is not by chance that she is there, at the moment that makes this day the holiest day of our year, and the deepest memorial of the deepest mystery of our existence. For Mary was also chosen to watch, as Perfect Love gave Himself to death on the Cross. If not like us in sin, she is like us in love, and it is through her eyes, that we can look and see and feel and hurt, because of the death we witness this day - the death of Perfect Love, the death of human love wed to Divine Love, and given to God, in the only way possible, that it could be returned to us - to mortal, imperfect, sinful men and women. The treasure, the precious treasure of MaryÕs witness to the death of Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of redemption, was given to the Church - to us - at this moment, when our Lord and Savior looked down from His pain, and still thinking of us, struggled with tortured breath and dimming life to say to His beloved disciple John:

Behold your motherÉ

And we, given to her, to be her children:

Woman, behold, your son.

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