Mary's response of sorrow to the crucifixion of her son is the most pure response possible. Only her uncorrupted human nature could make it. It is a sorry so right, honest, and sincere as to be beautiful. And so we honor her by the title Our Lady of Sorrows.
We rightly shy away from emotionalism. We shun that which is designed to excite a response in us. That sort of thing is mere manipulation. But some things deserve a reaction from our whole person.
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."
We ourselves don't have the correct emotional responses to things. The cross doesn't move us as we know it ought to. We rejoice when we ought to weep and weep when we ought to rejoice.
They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ (see Luke 7:32)
Mary invites us to behold the cross through her eyes and through the prism of her love for her son. When we do our own sorrow becomes rightly ordered. We begin to feel sorrow as it is meant to be felt. It is no longer something which merely traps us in an inwardly focused self-criticism. Instead we see the power of sorrow to draw us to healing, and eventually, to joy.
I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and an arrogant man,
but I have been mercifully treated
because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief.
Indeed, the grace of our Lord has been abundant,
along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Mary may have experienced the most profound sorrow of any human being ever. But so too does she now know joy beyond any other. She invites us to enter into her sorrow, not so that we might stay in that place, but rather, so that we can be transformed. Then we can let sorrow take its proper course in this veil of tears. We can eventually know the fullness of joy.
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment