Jesus is the sacrifice that in the fire of suffering consumes all the sinner’s abandonment by God; therefore, it is the most painful sacrifice both physically and spiritually. What is Mary's position in relation to this divine-human sacrifice? Mary does not withdraw her yes, but remains until the end; she lets it reach the end. How much rather would the Mother herself suffer all that her Son must endure!
And when during the Holy Mass the Church continually speaks of the sacrifice being offered, that we not only commemorate the Son's sacrifice but that the Church itself brings the sacrifice – where else has the Church truly realized what it costs to offer the Son to the Father than when in Mary it offered to the Father its own Son? Sinners in the Church cannot fully grasp this. She, the Most Holy, and then at most a handful of those who have been refined to the purest love, can assess what sword pierces the heart of the Church when it offers to the Father this sacrificing Lamb.
(Hans Urs von Balthasar /1905–1988/, excerpt from the text Priestly Spirituality)
