"And your heart also a sword will pierce" (cf. Lk 2:35)
Like a sheep beholding its lamb being led to the slaughter house (Is 53 :7), Mary followed behind with the other women, consumed with sorrow and crying: “Where are you going, my child? Why do you end your swift course (Ps 18[19]:6) in this way? Are there still other wedding feasts in Cana? Is it there that you are now going so swiftly to make wine for them out of water? Can I come with you, O my child, or would it be better to wait? Speak one word to me, O Word, do not pass before me in silence…, oh you who are my son and my God…
“You are going towards an unjust death and no one shares your suffering. Peter does not go with you, he who said: “Even if I have to die, I will never deny you” (Mt 26:35). Thomas, who exclaimed: “Let us all die with him!” (Jn 11:16), has left you. And the others too, your friends, those who are to judge the twelve tribes of Israel (Mt 19:28), where are they now? Not one remains. But you alone, O my child, you die for all. This is your recompense for having saved and served all humankind, my son and my God.”
Turning to Mary, he who came forth from her cried out: “Mother, why do you weep?... Am I not to suffer? Not to die? Then how could I save Adam? Am I not to dwell in the tomb? How should I bring back to life those who inhabit the dwelling of the dead? Why do you weep? Shout aloud, rather: ‘My son and my God is suffering of his own free will.’ O wise Virgin do not make yourself like those who are foolish (Mt 25:1f.); you stand in the wedding hall, do not become as though you stood outside… Weep no longer, then, but rather say: ‘Take pity on Adam, be merciful towards Eve, O my son and my God.’
“Be assured, O mother, that you will be the first to see me come from the tomb. I will come to show you from what misfortunes I have redeemed Adam, what efforts I have expended for his sake. To my friends I will reveal their marks, which I will show in my hands. Then you will see Eve alive as she was before and in your joy you will cry out: ‘He has saved my parents, my son and my God!’”
St. Thalassios the Libyan