Thursday in the 24th Week in Ordinary Time, September 15, 2022

The Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

John 19, 25-27

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his Mother and his Mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 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.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. 

During his talk to the Apostles at the Last Supper, the Lord reminded them of a common experience in the life of a family: “When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world” (John 16, 21).  He was teaching them then that they would suffer because of his coming Death but then would exult in his Resurrection.  But these words speak particularly of the sufferings of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a result of seeing her Son suffer so grievously and then die in agony on the Cross after spending his life giving selflessly to others.  

St. John in the account used here for this feast’s Gospel Reading, does not describe the Blessed Mother’s sufferings, but his restraint reveals everything.  She stands under the Cross watching her Son’s chest heaven as he struggles for breath.  She sees his face twist as he pushes down on his nailed feet, in order to draw breath.  His Blood drips on the ground by her feet from his terrible wounds.  And all the time she knows that he is innocence itself, and the Son of God.  As the Lord permits men to torture and kill him for our sake, the Blessed Virgin does not try to hide from the sword of which the aged Simeon had spoken long before, but allows it to pierce her heart by witnessing his suffering, and so sharing in it.

From the Stabat Mater, the traditional hymn for this feast: 

Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled, 

she beheld her tender Child. 

All with bloody scourges rent.

On this Feast, celebrated just after that of The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, we pray for the grace to always be aware of the price the Lord and his Mother paid for our redemption from sin.