The film, The Passion of the Christ, shows how Christ’s followers abandon him. Only his mother, the apostle John, and Mary Magdalene remained.

They scurried through narrow streets hoping to glimpse him.  He appears from behind the buildings ahead. Under his heavy cross he falls. Mary stops short, slumped on a doorstep, sighing in grief. She knows this is all God’s will. Yet she is a human mother watching her Child suffer.

  A flashback brings her back to action. She sees Jesus as a little boy, falling down, calling for his mum. Stirred by the memory, she runs to her Son and comforts him.

* * *

Blessed Mary MacKillop had a great devotion to Mary, the mother of Christ, a love which dated right back to her infancy.

  Once when she was small and staying with friends, and missing her Mamma, a beautiful Lady had come to her and said, “My child I will always be a Mother to you.”

  Later she wrote a little devotion to Our Lady, including the words, “Ah, my Mother, think of the day when I knelt, but a child, to ask you to be my Mother, and I remember your gentle whisper that you had marked me as such since my birth.”

* * *

There is one only redeemer given by God to save us from our sins — Christ himself. Mary was redeemed, as we all are, by Christ.

  Yet every believer, by being united with the Saviour, becomes also a “redeemer”, along with Him.

  Mary, more closely united with Our Lord than any other person, participates in the Redemption more powerfully than any other.

  That’s why she is traditionally referred to as our “Co-Redemptrix”, along with Christ.