I would like to say that I hesitate to embrace this feast. But that would be too mild. I balk. This makes for an interesting situation as she happens to be a patron of our Movement. (The questions runs through my mind, “couldn’t we make a case for Our Lady of Guadalupe—evangelization of peoples?). But still, Our Lady of Sorrows remains one of our main patrons. There seems something wrong with celebrating someone else’s sorrow.
Today, in the homily that Fr. Nikola Derpich, LC gave, he mentioned the roots of this feast and how, to begin with, it was called “Our Lady of Compassion.” Ahh! What a refreshing way to look at it. No longer am I “celebrating” the sorrows of Mary, but I am focusing on the compassion she had as she accompanied Jesus in His passion.
How does this translate into my life? I just received an email from a priest-friend who is in contact with some missionaries in Iraq. They sent him a plea for prayer as the town they are in was just taken over by ISIS and the Muslim militants have devised a new tactic of terror. They are going from house to house asking the children to denounce Jesus. So far, not one child has. And so far all have consequently been killed. Their parents are spared.
I can’t imagine the pain of these families. But my heart is moved and my prayer is fervent and somehow, I find myself accompanying them from half a world away.
Mary was unable to do anything to put an end to Jesus’ passion…and she suffered greatly for it. She was the woman of sorrows. What a great example for me when I find myself helpless facing the tragedy and loss of others! What a fitting patroness for our time and culture that seeks so much for success and triumph! (And is devastated when it does not come!)
So my prayer becomes that which the liturgy of the Mass proposes today: we humbly ask, O Lord, that honoring how the Blessed Virgin Mary suffered with her Son, we may complete in ourselves for the Church’s sake what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.”
Mary’s triumph (as Christ’s) came through what she suffered.
