Our Lady of Sorrows
Hebrews 5:7-9 | Psalm 30:2-6,15-16,20 | John 19:25-27
At the Cross her station keeping,
stood the mournful Mother weeping,
close to Jesus to the last. (Stabat Mater)
I can only imagine the pain Our Blessed Mother must have experienced, gazing on her Son bleeding out on the cross, remembering the prophetic words of Simeon, trying to understand why.
We have the benefit of scripture and a few millenia of tradition, and yet we can’t really comprehend it either, how God could love every human past, present and future, love us all so much as to send His Son to sacrifice Himself for the redemption of everyone. To us, such all-encompassing love is so alien, so outside our narrow experience.
But Mary was touched by God, privileged to bear Him within her womb, so I think she was much better placed to understand such depths of love, even though Love’s consequences wrenched her heart inside out.
This is why we still hold her in such high esteem, why we continually turn to her in our own sorrow and pain, to ask for her intercession. There is no one better than Our Blessed Mother to fill this role, for she was fully human, yet knew God so much better than any of us ever will in a hundred lifetimes.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the our of our death. Amen.