The Sorrowful Mary
Brethren, Mary our Mother, mother of God, Queen of heaven, has many celebrated feasts on the catholic saints' calendar after Jesus her son. Most of her feasts and memorials are happy feasts but today we celebrate her as our Lady of Sorrows. Being the mother of God, Queen of heaven and many titles which she has did not mean she could not suffer or not to have sorrows in her heart. We celebrate this feast as we fly to Mary's hands who suffered a lot of pains as a mother and as the one who knows our sorrows so that she can pray for us for the graces we need to persevere in sufferings and sorrows as we serve God. May we imitate her always.
The Church gives us this feast of Our Lady of Sorrows immediately following the Exaltation of the Cross. It is not only Jesus by his dying on the cross but also his mother suffered a lot and had a lot of sorrows though she kept all these things at heart pondering on them (Lk 2:19). On this day, we can commemorate the seven sorrows of Mary as given to St. Bridget of Sweden in the thirteenth century: The prophecy of Simeon (Luke 2:25-35); The flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15); Loss of the Child Jesus for three days (Luke 2:41-50); Mary meeting Jesus on his way to Calvary (Luke 23:27-31; John 19:17); Crucifixion and Death of Jesus (John 19:25-30); The body of Jesus being taken from the Cross (Psalm 130; Luke 23:50-54; John 19:31-37); and The burial of Jesus (Isaiah 53:8; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:38-42; Mark 15:40-47). She endured each of these sorrows with perfect love, and Our Lady has promised many graces to anyone who meditates on these seven sorrows.
Though she had all these sorrows, Mary did not want to get into the way of doing the will of God both in her life and in the life of Jesus. Many have called Mary a martyr in spirit. Bernard of Clairvaux said: "(Jesus) died in body through a love greater than anyone had known. She (Mary) died in spirit through a love unlike any other since his." Mary did not despair in her sorrow and loss, since her faith and hope were sustained by her trust in God and the love she had for her Son. She knew that the will of God involves suffering and sorrows and so these sorrows meant nothing compared to the will of God. Despite her sorrows, her heart was full of motherly love and tenderness. St. Jerome wrote, "Even while living in the world, the heart of Mary was so filled with motherly tenderness and compassion for men that no one ever suffered so much for their own pains, as Mary suffered for the pains of her children."
That is why, in today's gospel, Jesus at the cross gave his mother to the beloved disciple. Notice that the beloved disciple's name is not mentioned, meaning that a beloved disciple is anyone who believes in Jesus and follows his teaching. St. John Paul II said, “On the cross, Jesus did not formally proclaim Mary's universal motherhood, but established a concrete maternal relationship between her and the beloved disciple. In the Lord's choice, we can see his concern that this motherhood should not be interpreted vaguely, but should point to Mary's intense, personal relationship with individual Christians.” So, by giving Mary to the beloved disciple, Jesus also gave Mary to all of us as our mother. She loves us with tender love as she loved Jesus her Son. She knows all our sorrows and sufferings and she will not leave us alone when we run to her.
Reflect today on the sorrows of Mary our Mother. As she encountered sorrows in her life and didn't avoid doing the will of God in her life, let us remember that when we encounter our own sufferings, we have the same chance to participate in Christ’s saving mission by offering God our hurts, failures, illnesses, sorrows, sufferings and grief. When we unite our suffering to Christ’s, our offering becomes meritorious for the salvation of the world. As St. John Paul II said, “Christ has raised human suffering to the level of the Redemption. Thus, each man, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ” (Salvifici Doloris 19).
Let us Pray.
O God, you willed that the life of the Blessed Virgin be marked by the mystery of suffering. Grant that we journey with Her on the way of faith and unite our sufferings to the passion of Christ so that they become occasions of grace and the promise of future resurrection. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Be blessed.
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