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Who Are You to Avoid Suffering? A Reflection on the Seven Sorrows of Mary
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October 6, 2023Friday, September 15, 2023
Who Are You to Avoid Suffering?
A Reflection on the Seven Sorrows of Mary(Readings: 1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12-14;Today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, and it was at this particular sorrow, the crucifixion and death of her son Jesus as Mary watched him die, that Jesus looked down from the cross and gave his Blessed Mother—not only to St. John—but to all of us as our mother as well.
Psalm 16:1-11; and John 19:25-27)
By virtue of our baptism, we are brothers and sisters of Christ, and the Blessed Mother is our Mother in the order of Grace. This is not a doctrine that was made up by the Church, but a gift Jesus gave us at the cross.
As a lifelong virgin, Mary had no children other than Jesus, who we know was conceived by the Holy Spirit. This act of Jesus telling his mother, “Woman behold your son,” then telling St. John, “Behold your Mother,” is the greatest testimony to that fact. In the time of Jesus, it would have been unthinkable for Jesus to give his mother to the care of anyone other than his brothers and sisters. It would have been their responsibility to care for their mother, no ifs, ands, or buts. That’s the way it would have been. So it is clear Mary had no other children to care for her when Jesus died.
But the great gift and blessing to us is that in giving Mary to St. John as his mother and in giving St. John to Mary as her son, Jesus gave her as Spiritual Mother to all of his disciples to come, including us. Even our Protestant brothers and sisters who unfortunately don’t even acknowledge this fact.
There is also a great confirmation that Mary is our Mother in the order of grace in Revelation 12:17 which tells us, “The dragon (representing the devil) became angry with the woman (representing the Blessed Mother) and what did he do? He went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring (representing us as disciples of Jesus), those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus. So, if anyone ever questions us on why we call Mary our Blessed Mother, a good place to start is by sending them to the 19th Chapter of John and the 12th Chapter of Revelation.
Knowing that Mary is our mother in the order of Grace, we should always turn to her for help—even more so than we would our earthly mother. Especially in Spiritual matters, because she has the ear of her son, our brother Jesus, who is more importantly our Lord and Savior.
She will do for us just as she did at the Wedding at Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle at her request. Even though he initially objected, Jesus did as his Mother asked.
As I mentioned earlier, today is the Feast of our Lady of Sorrows, and there are actually Seven Sorrows of Mary that we reflect on today:
1. The presentation of Jesus in the temple with the prophecy of Simeon
2. The Flight into Egypt
3. The Loss of Jesus in the Temple at Jerusalem
4. The Meeting of Jesus and Mary on the Way of the Cross
5. The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus
6. The Taking Down of the Body of Jesus from the Cross
7. The burial of Jesus
The point of reflecting on these Sorrows is to remind us that we should always unite our sufferings to the sufferings of Christ as the Blessed Mother did, and that when we do this the Lord will take whatever evil or injury we face and bring good out of it. I mean, God changed and saved the world through these Seven Sorrows of Mary, and he can and will do great things when we unite our sorrows to Him as well.
But the question still remains, why should we have to suffer at all? Unfortunately, that’s an age-old question that I can’t fully answer myself.
However, even though none of us likes to suffer, when asking the question “Why me?”, all we have to do is look at Jesus, who is God, and see how he suffered to save us and share his life with us. Or the Blessed Mother and think about how, at the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel told Mary that she was blessed among women and yet she suffered greatly, more than any of us ever will.
So here we have Mary, the one person in all human history to be chosen to bring God into the world, and yet even she suffered in this life. So why should we think, as followers of Christ, that we would not endure suffering as well?
Be assured however, that if we remain faithful to the Lord, united to him even in our suffering, one day—sooner than we expect—we will be with Jesus and the Blessed Mother, living with them in eternal joy in heaven.
Amen!
