In the passion account of Saint Luke, we are told that in the course of his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, an angel was sent to strengthen and comfort Jesus as his undependable friends lay asleep a stone’s throw away. There is no record of any similar heavenly consolation during the actual crucifixion as Christ hung in agony on the cross. And yet there was something—or rather, someone—whose presence at the foot of the cross was immensely comforting and strengthening to Jesus, namely, Mary his mother. However, her presence wasn’t a source of comfort and strength simply because of the pure and unfailing maternal love and support she offered to him as his death approached. Instead, her entire being was a source of deep comfort and consolation as Christ beheld in her the wondrous fruit of the suffering he was presently still undergoing. Having shared beforehand—through her Immaculate Conception—in the salvation Christ would bring about by his death, she stood before him as a perfect and living witness to the victory over sin and death his present agony was bringing about. A similar, though very different, process can take place in us during our times of suffering and darkness as we look back on the road we have traveled thus far and see how Christ’s grace has touched and transformed our lives. For it is this that offers us a glimpse and foretaste of what it means to be redeemed in Christ such that we are given the strength and resolve to press forward and persevere to the end. May she, whose presence as the most perfectly redeemed of our race strengthened Christ in his agony, also give strength and hope to us as we struggle towards that holiness and fullness of redemption that was hers from the very first moment of her existence. For what she always was, is what we can, and will, become if we but persevere.