Mary's Song

Mary speaks in the first person at the foot of the cross in JJ Heller's "Mary's Song," and the grief comes from two memories set side by side. She still recalls "your favorite games" and the laughter that filled their home, yet now sees a "naked man on a splintered cross." Her question, "What have we done to you oh Lord," carries both a mother's shock and a worshipper's confession.

The second section turns to what she cannot bear. She asks forgiveness for being unable to watch, describes "the weight of the world suspended from iron," and calls him in one breath "the Lamb of God" and "my little boy." That pairing of title and nickname holds the song's tension: the sacrifice is cosmic, but the one bearing it is her son. The closing admission, "Somehow I knew that this day would come / But I never wanted to say goodbye," ends on a bare "No" rather than a resolution.

The scene lines up with Simeon's warning in Luke 2:35 that a sword would pierce Mary's soul, with John 19:25, which places her beside the cross, and with John 1:29's naming of Jesus as the Lamb of God.