Thursday, September 15, 2016

15 September 2016 - our lady of sorrow



Today we learn to appreciate the value of sorrow, even the most bitter sorrow of a mother who has lost her only son. 

Mary loses Jesus. Most likely Joseph is already gone. Most likely she is widowed. She feels immense sorrow. But somehow she is not completely overwhelmed, even when the sword pierces her own side. From Our Lady of Sorrows we learn that sorrow doesn't have the final word. She is not completely crushed. She may not understand how something good can come from this but she holds on. Wouldn't it be better, we think, if this loss never occurred? But no, because then death would still reign. No, we wouldn't have been given the adoption that makes Mary our mother, too.

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved
he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.”
Then he said to the disciple,
“Behold, your mother.”
And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

She has suffered more than we have. The most perfect and precious thing is taken from her. And yet she has made it through by faith. She wants to teach us, as her sons and daughters, how to hold on through the sorrow. She wants to show us how even suffering can be transformed. She wants to lift our eyes to the resurrection on the horizon.

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures;

The third day is coming. Mary knows it and she can show us from her own love and faith how to hold on through the difficult times. Our Lady of Sorrows, because she endures and embraces those sorrows, is also Our Lady of Victory.

“The right hand of the LORD is exalted;
the right hand of the LORD has struck with power.”
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.


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