In his On the Institution of Virgins, Ambrose of Milan wrote :
Stabat ante crucem mater, et fugientibus viris, stabat intrepida. Videte
utrum pudorem mutare potuerit mater Jesu, quae animum non muta vit. Spectabat
piis oculis filii vulnera, per quem sciebat omnibus futu- ram redemptionem.
Stabat non degeneri mater spectaculo, quae non metuebat peremptorem. Pendebat
in cruce filius, mater se persecu- toribus offerebat. Si hoc solum esset ut
ante filium prosterneretur, laudandus pietatis affectus, quod superstes filio
esse nolebat : sin vero ut cum filio moreretur, cum eodem gestiebat resurgere,
non ignara mysterii quod genuisset resurrecturum : simul quae publico usui im-
pendi mortem filii noverat, praestolabatur si forte etiam sua morte publico
muneri aliquid adderetur. Sed Christi passio adjutorio non eguit, sicut ipse
Dominus longe ante praedixit : « Et respexi, et non erat au- xiliator : et
attendi et nemo suscipiebat : et liberabo eos brachio meo. » Quomodo ergo
extorqueri potuit integritas Mariae, quae fugientibus apostolis, supplicia non
metuebat, sed ipsa se offerebat periculis ? (Ambrose, De Inst. Virg.
7 :49f. PL 16 :318c-319a)
English translation :
The mother stood before the
cross, and while the men fled, she stood fearless. See whether the mother of
Jesus, who did not change her resolve, could have changed her modesty. With
devout eyes, she gazed upon the wounds of her Son, through whom she knew redemption
would come for all.
The mother did not shrink
from such a dreadful spectacle; she did not fear the executioner. Her Son hung
on the cross, and she offered herself to His persecutors. If it were only so
that she might fall prostrate before her Son, her devotion would be praiseworthy,
since she did not wish to outlive Him. But if it were so that she might die
with Him, she longed to rise with Him as well, fully aware of the mystery that
He, whom she had borne, would rise again.
At the same time, knowing
that the death of her Son was for the benefit of all, she awaited to see
whether perhaps even her own death might contribute something to that public
sacrifice. However, Christ’s Passion needed no assistance, as the Lord Himself
had long before foretold: "I looked, and there was no one to help; I
observed, and no one sustained me; therefore, I will save them with my own
arm."
How, then, could Mary's
integrity be shaken? While the apostles fled, she did not fear suffering but
instead offered herself to danger.
In spite of Ambrose’s very high Mariology, as one
commentator noted:
The passage above is unfavorable
to Mary’s coredemptive role . . . (Charles William Neumann, The Virgin Mary
in the Works of Saint Ambrose [Contributions in the History of Early
Christian Literature and Theology 17; Fribourg: The University Press, 1962], 265)
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