Annotation CXXXVIII
”And a sword shall pierce through thy own soul.” — Luke 2:35
Whether Mary suffered a defect of faith at Christ's death.
Origen, in homily 17 on Luke, hands down that, when Christ was dying, a sword of scandal [stumbling] and unbelief pierced the soul of Mary. And he expresses this opinion in this discourse: “What is that sword, which pierced through not only the heart of others, but even of Mary? It is openly written that at the time of the Passion all the Apostles were scandalized, the Lord himself also saying, ‘All you shall be scandalized in this night.’ Therefore all were scandalized so far, that Peter too, the chief of the Apostles, denied [him] thrice. What do we think — that, the Apostles being scandalized, the mother of the Lord was immune from scandal? If she suffered no scandal in the Lord’s Passion, Jesus did not die for her sins. But if all have sinned, and lack the grace of God, [being] justified by his grace and redeemed: assuredly Mary too was scandalized at that time. And this is what Simeon now prophesies, saying: ‘And through thy own soul (thou who knowest that thou didst bear a virgin [child] without a man — thou who didst hear from Gabriel, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee”) there shall pass the sword of unbelief, and thou shalt be struck with the point of doubt, and thy thoughts shall tear thee in divers ways, when thou shalt see him — whom thou hadst heard [to be] the Son of God — crucified, and dying, and at the last tearfully complaining, and saying, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”’” These [things] Origen [says]; with whom Chrysostom, in the explanation of Psalm 13, writes plainly in words consonant with these: “When Christ was crucified, there was none who did good. The disciples all fled: John withdraws stripped: Peter denies. The soul of Mary his mother the sword
[pierced through] — the sword of doubt pierced through. Augustine agrees with both, whose words in the book Questions on the Old and New Testament, question 73, are these: “But what he added, saying, ‘And a sword shall pierce through thy own soul, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed’ — this assuredly signified that Mary too, through whom the mystery of the Savior’s incarnation was accomplished, would doubt at the death of the Lord — yet in such wise that she would be confirmed at the resurrection. For who would not waver, seeing him, who called himself the Son of God, so humbled that he descended even unto death?” Nor does Theophylact differ from these, writing thus in the commentaries on Luke: “But perhaps he calls ‘sword’ also the grief which she bore in the Passion; and perhaps also the scandal by which Mary was offended. For seeing [him] crucified, perhaps she was thinking: how [is it that] he who was born without seed, who did miracles, who raised the dead, is crucified, spat upon, dead? But what he says, ‘That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed’ — this signifies that the thoughts of many, who are scandalized, will be revealed and made manifest, and, being reproved, will find a sudden remedy; just as thou too, O Virgin, wilt be revealed and made manifest [as to] what thou thinkest of Christ, and thereafter wilt be confirmed in faith in him; likewise Peter too will be revealed, when he shall have denied, but the power of God will be [thereby] demonstrated, which received him back through penance.”
St. Thomas, in the third volume of the Summa, question 27, article 4, weighing the opinion of Augustine which we cited above, says that it is to be understood not of that kind of doubt which proceeds from unbelief, but of the hesitation of stupor [amazement] which is wont to accompany a great wonder. Nor does what Augustine said differ from this — that all doubted, by a certain stupor, at the death of the Lord. Whether these [things] can be accommodated to the foregoing sayings of Origen and Theophylact, let others see: for concerning the opinion of Chrysostom we have written above, in Annotations 104 and 156 of book 5.