As a final gesture of love in his own Passion, Jesus turns to his mother, and says to his beloved disciple John: “behold your mother”. And from that time, John (representing all disciples) made a place for her in his heart, in his home.
Pope Benedict observes: “Mary is a woman who loves….. We see it in the humility with which she recedes into the background during Jesus’ public life, knowing that the Son must establish a new family and that the Mother’s hour will come only with the Cross, which will be Jesus’ true hour (John 2:4, 13:1). When the disciples flee, Mary will remain beneath the Cross (John 19:25-27); later, at the hour of Pentecost it will be they who gather around her as they wait for the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:14).” (Encyclical Letter Deus caritas est (25 December 2005), 41.)