The Sixth Dolor: Jesus Is Taken Down From the Cross

March 21:

Tradition has it that Jesus’ body was placed in His mother’s arms after He was taken down from the Cross. This touching scene became the subject of artistic renderings around 1300, with the most famous of all being Michelangelo’s sculpture in white marble. The Pietahas been housed in St. Peter’s Basilica since the early 18^th Century.

“No one can suggest that God did not love the Blessed Virgin. Nevertheless, He did not exempt her for Calvary, or from making her participate in the Cross to a fuller extent than anyone else in the world except her Son. It would be foolish – to think that if God really loves us, as He does, He will exempt us from the Cross, the sign of the Christian.”

— Federico Suarez

For Reflection:

Christian thinking has always posited the Cross as the consummate sign of victory. We even celebrate a feast day in celebration of it – September 14, The Triumph of the Cross. How was Calvary and the Cross, Jesus’ greatest triumph? Mary’s? How does the Cross, then, speak of God’s love for us  — first, in reception of the fruits it has gained for us; and second, in the entrustment of the cross we carry? To what extent does this insight lighten the burden?