'It is certain that the more we love a thing, the
greater is the pain we feel in losing it. We are more afflicted at the
loss of a brother than at that of a beast of burden; we are more grieved
at the loss of a son than at that of a friend. Now, Cornelius a Lapide
says, "that to understand the greatness of Mary's grief at the death of
her Son, we must understand the greatness of the love she bore Him." But
who can ever measure that love? Blessed Amadeus says that "in the heart
of Mary were united two kinds of love for her Jesus--supernatural love,
by which she loved Him as her God, and natural love, by which she loved
Him as her Son." So that these two loves became one; but so immense a
love, that William of Paris even says that the Blessed Virgin "loved Him
as much as it was possible for a pure creature to love Him." Hence
Richard of Saint Victor affirms that "as there was no love like her
love, so there was no sorrow like her sorrow." And if the love of Mary
towards her Son was immense, immense also must have been her grief in
losing Him by death. "Where there is the greatest love," says Blessed
Albert the Great, "there also is the greatest grief."'
