'THE SAINTS IN A YEAR' - OUR LADY OF SORROWS AND HOPE BEYOND THE CROSS

Fr Billy Swan

It is fitting and right that a series of fifty-two meditations on the saints should include one on Mary, the Mother of Jesus. She is one of the saints and pre-eminent among them because of her unique role as Mother of the Saviour and as the one who shares fully in the divine life, being ‘full of grace’.

The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is celebrated on 15^th September, the day after the feast of the Triumph of the Cross, which is no coincidence. With the proximity of the two feasts, the Church is emphasising something really important – namely, that what we believe about Mary is intimately linked and inseparably connected to the life of her Son and so is intimately connected to the life of the Church and all the baptised.

I recall my first visit to the Holy Land and entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. I joined a community for Mass near the rock of Calvary during which the first reading was taken from the letter of St Paul to the Romans. There, Paul talks about the baptised sharing in the suffering and death of Christ and sharing in his resurrection and new life. I had heard that reading hundreds of times before, but in that very place where Jesus suffered and died, it powerfully came to life.

I thought of Mary, who stood at the cross near where the Mass was celebrated and how Paul’s insight of believers participating in Christ’s suffering and resurrection, was already happening when Our Lady watched the horrific spectacle of her Son’s brutal death. After the Mass, I walked the short distance to the empty tomb of Christ, the place of his resurrection and the explosion of new hope that the cross did not destroy. I thought of Mary in the Upper Room at Pentecost, gathered with the Apostles, anticipating the Holy Spirit, having emerged from the darkness of Good Friday.

The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows reminds us of the intimate closeness of Mary with her Son but also her intimate closeness to us who also participate in the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. She shared in his passion on Calvary. She shares in his resurrection as we see in the feast of her Assumption. So too do we, as baptised Christians, share in his cross and his resurrection. Here is the truth of how suffering and love are two mysteries that cannot be separated in the Christian life.

For if someone you love is suffering, then you suffer too. To love is to suffer. It was also the experience of Mary. She loved her Son with a love beyond all telling. And because she did, she suffered immensely as he suffered before her eyes. She suffered with him. His agony was hers.

From the cross, Jesus entrusted Mary to all his disciples - ‘Son/daughter behold your mother’. He also entrusted us to her – ‘Mother, behold your son/daughter’.

For all of those who suffer, it means that Mary suffers too. She suffers because she loves us and because she loves us, she suffers when we do. As she was there with her Son from beginning to the end, so she is with us at every step of life’s journey. With her gentle care she is with us now, gently mothering us to keep going through the darkness and towards the light of resurrection.

This is the message of hope that St Oscar Romero brought to parents whose children were tortured and killed in El Salvador; this is the hope that people of faith bring to the parents of sick children in hospitals; the hope that Christians bring to those grieving and to the dying. It is the same hope of Our Lady of Sorrows who intensely lived those human moments of darkness but whose faith enabled her to keep going towards the light of hope.

And as we walk through life, especially during those dark moments, Mary’s love is close. In the liturgical sequence of the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, Mary is honoured with the title of “Fons amoris…fount of love”. From Mary’s heart, there springs up a deep maternal love, especially for those who are tempted to lose hope. She loves them quite simply because they are her children, according to the will of Christ on the Cross.

May all those who share in the suffering of Jesus be accompanied by Mary’s tender love that encourages us never to lose hope. The shadow of the cross fell on Mary on Calvary. Shadows come and go. But the light of the resurrection, last eternally.