Mary, Mother of Sorrows

The Sixth Sorrow of Mary: Mary receives the dead body of her son--We live in a world filled with pain, inundated with suffering.  Mary holding the crucified body of her son on her lap is all of us holding within our hearts the tragedies of life, the pain of loved ones and of all our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world.  The Pieta portrays the strength of those who embrace suffering, those who open "their laps" to those abandoned or tossed aside by prejudices and indifferences, left to die alone or to live in situations polluted by the poison of hate.  "The son whom Mary holds is a symbol of the suffering people in [our lives] who need someone to be with them when they are vulnerable, sorely troubled, and overwhelmed with the intensity of life's painful unfolding" (Joyce Rupp, My Sorrow Is Your Sorrow,  The Crossroad Publishing Company, NY, p. 138). Who, today, might need me to be there to hold them in their pain? What suffering might I encounter today that needs "a lap" to lie on for comfort?