ABSTRACT
At the foot of the cross as at the Annunciation, Mary's activity was essentially a consent in which her faith and love are involved. In the Incarnation it was consent to life–this human life which she gives to her Son; in the Redemption, it is consent to death–this human death that Christ had to suffer in order to redeem the world. The message from Vatican II regarding Mary's thoughts and feelings at the foot of the cross is best understood as a mass deviation from scripture. It is not an isolated theologian, and not the pope alone, but a large collective of religious leaders from the top tiers of the Roman Catholic hierarchy composed and approved of these words about Mary. From the later medieval period come some theologically correct interpretations of Mary at the foot of the cross that suggest, not only that Mary was "saved" by her son's death, but also that she rejoiced over it.
