Mary's Hour

In the Gospel of John, the term “hour” is used throughout and with great significance.  It chiefly refers to the event of the Passion, by which Christ saves the world from sin.  As the events of the Gospel unfold, Christ gradually explains that the hour is not yet here, but is coming, and finally in Holy Week Christ declares that the hour has arrived. 

The theme of the hour first appears at the wedding feast at Cana.  When Mary presents the issue of wine to Jesus, he responds by saying “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4).  By still asking Him to perform a miracle, Mary initiates Christ’s public ministry and urges Him towards His hour – the Cross. 

What is often missed in the Gospel of John is Mary’s hour.  In John 16, during the Last Supper, Christ says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.  When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world.  So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:20-22).  What is here translated as “a woman,” is the Greek “he gyne,” which more literally means “the woman.”  The article is definitive, not indefinite, it refers to a particular woman, not just any woman.

When Christ’s hour finally arrives, as He hangs on the cross, Mary stands at the foot of the cross suffering with Him.  She is in great pain.  Before Christ dies, He gives His mother to His disciple to be his own mother, “When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’  Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home” (John 19:26-27).  This is where Christ makes Mary the Mother of all Christians.

Mary’s hour was the same as Christ’s hour – the Cross.  They each endured it differently; Christ directly bore the sufferings of crucifixion and Mary watched her Son die – she was crucified spiritually while Christ was crucified physically.  By her hour, Mary helped birth the Church and is thus rightly called the Mother of the Church.  Mary sent Christ towards His hour at the beginning of John’s Gospel and then endures it along with Him, suffering her own hour of labor pains which brought forth her spiritual children – the Church.