Mary, Mother of Sorrows

Mary, Mother of Sorrows: The Fifth Sorrow, Mary Stands beneath the Cross—Mary sees and hears the exchange between the two criminals. One of them is making fun of Jesus. Dismis confronts his fellow criminal, saying to him: “Have you no fear of God at all? You got the same sentence as he did, but in our case we deserved it: we are paying for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Dismis stands up for Jesus, admits his sinfulness and begs mercy. Mary hears Jesus’ response: “In truth I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  Imagine Mary hearing those words: Jesus will soon be in paradise, as will Dismis. Imagine, too, if you were watching a loved one close to death and that person said to you: “Honey, I will soon be in Paradise. Jesus is calling me.”  Would not your heart be deeply, deeply touched and, as much as you would not want to lose that person or let him/her go, you would not withhold that gift from him/her.

Imagine, too, being the parent or family member of a criminal and you witnessed  your son/daughter/loved one, while facing death, stand up for Jesus, admit his/her wrongdoing and ask God for mercy.  It happens every day because our God is a merciful, compassionate, loving God who extends the grace of redemption to everyone.  No exceptions!  The opportunity to witness to Jesus, to acknowledge our sinfulness, to ask for mercy will be given to each one of us, as it was given to Dismis and his fellow criminal.  Mary will be there as our witness, praying that we will accept the invitation to repent. Like Mary, we, too, however, are called upon to pray for others in similar situations. Who, in your life, needs your intercessory prayer and your mercy?

Mary, Mother of Sorrows

Mary, Mother of Sorrows: The Fifth Sorrow, Mary Standing beneath the Cross of Jesus—In her sorrow, Mary hears Jesus says: “Woman, behold your Son” and to John  “Son, behold your mother.”  It was as if Jesus had said: “Woman, you are now to be the mother of all humankind.  Your role in carrying out my Father’s will  is changing. Now, your mission is to all people.  You are to do for them what you have done for Me: taught  me to say “yes” to my Father’s will just as you had done, challenged me at Cana to step up to the plate and reveal my true identity: my power to make a difference; to  proclaim the presence of the Kingdom of my Father by healing the deaf, the blind and the crippled; to forgive sins, raise the dead to life, confront sin and proclaim salvation, though doing these things would bring me into conflict with the powers that be and would ultimately lead to my death.  You taught me to do my Father’s work no matter what the consequences might be.  You need to teach every man and woman to do the same: to work to build up the Kingdom even when it brings them into conflict with human authority, even though standing up for Truth will lead to ridicule, suspicion, rejection and  death--death to the ego, death to fear, death to deceitfulness, death to pride—and ‘yes’ even, in some cases, physical death.”

 To what do I need to die in order to embrace the brotherhood/sisterhood of all humankind and, together, make this world what God intends it to be: a place where all are respected, all are made whole, and peace and justice reign; in short, where sin has no more power to destroy?

Mary, Mother of Sorrows

Mary, Mother of Sorrows: The Fifth Sorrow—Standing beneath the cross of Jesus:  Mary hears Jesus cry out: “I thirst” and realizes that a centurion offers Him vinegar to drink.  What good is that—a drink that would burn His parched lips and cause Him to cough, thus aggravating the pierced extremities.  Mary, who relieved Jesus’ thirst so many times as a little boy, cannot, this moment, hold a cup of cold water to his parched lips.  His thirst and hers become one. His agony is hers.

Jesus’ thirst is not just a physical thirst. It is also a thirst for justice, for truth. An innocent man is being put to death. Truth is being scorned, rejected, denied by the Scribes, Pharisees, and the authorities of Jesus’ day.  Over and over again, Mary and Jesus witness truth being mocked by justice systems throughout the world, by corrupt law enforcement personnel and unjust judges, by criminals, by ordinary men and women refusing to acknowledge their sinful ways.  Every time truth is rejected, the death of Jesus and Mary’s witness to that death is reenacted in our lives.

To whose truth am I witness today? Is that truth—my own or another’s--being upheld or denied? Are Jesus and Mary standing by thirsting for us to become our true selves, to become one with them in the integrity of our beings, in walking the way of love and justice?

Mary, Mother of Sorrows

Mary, Mother of Sorrows: The Fifth Sorrow, Standing beneath the Cross--As Jesus undergoes the agonizing pain of crucifixion, Mary hears her Son cry out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” She is unable to say anything that would comfort Him. His experience of abandonment pierces His soul and hers as painfully as the nails have piercingly been driven through His wrist and feet and Mary’s heart! 

Mary witnesses her Son speak His truth even on the cross, expressing His feeling of being deserted, left utterly alone  and asking His Father “why?”  “Where are you, Father, when I need you so desperately?   There is no way Mary can give an answer to that “why?” or bring relief in any way. Here her intercessory power seems to be silenced.

Her pain is a parents’ pain when nothing they do makes a difference in their child’s life. Every child must endure consequences to their actions that parents cannot mediate. The consequences of Jesus’ actions—being true to His Father’s mission of showing all of humankind mercy, of loving us to death literally, proclaiming a Kingdom of justice—led to Calvary. The consequences of a child’s  actions, when their choices are not in accord with God’s will and, in fact, are in violation of the law of the land, can lead to an arrest, prison time and, sometimes, death.  A parent stands as helpless as Mary did beneath the cross. She knows the pain of powerlessness and, with every parent, she stands by their side as well.  She stands at the side of every person who is helpless to change the outcome of choices that lead to devastating consequences and to an agony that words cannot express.

Mary, Mother of Sorrows

Mary, Mother of Sorrows: The Fifth Sorrow, Mary Standing beneath the Cross—Mary stands beneath the cross of her dying Son. He is in excruciating pain as he lifts Himself up in order to breathe.  Blood is pouring out from His nailed wrists and feet. Executioners and those crucified with Him are taunting Him: “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross and save yourself.”   Unsympathetic onlookers are scoffing at Him, convinced now, perhaps, that He got what He deserved, that He was, in truth, not the Messiah, the Anointed One, but an imposter.   And when Jesus stays on the cross in obedience to the Father, out of love for us and for our salvation, their disgust toward Him intensifies.  Mary hears the scathing insults.  She sees the hatred in the eyes of those who are mocking Him and hears the anger in their voices.  She then hears Jesus say: “Father, forgive them for they know now what they are doing.”  With her Son, Mary asks God to forgive us when we say and do things that bring harm to others.  

What do we do when we witness others being insulted? What do we do when we ourselves experience the disdain of those who resent us? How do we react when what we stand for as Christians is met with scornful remarks or when our truth is rejected, as Jesus’ was?  With Jesus and Mary, do we pray: “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing?”

Sunday Eucharistic celebration:

Today Christians throughout the world are worshipping in community and and receiving the Eucharist.  I am in a foreign country today. After Mass, the Sisters I am visiting greeted many of the parishioners. I watched or "hid" behind one of them I knew and who, at the time, was not mingling.  I could have continued to withdraw, like a small child hiding behind and clinging to the back of its mother's leg.  I could have continued to use the excuse "I don't know anyone" or "I am shy," and not, following the Eucharistic celebration, "broken bread" with anyone.  Finally, either moved by my discomfort or by the Spirit, I reached out and began to greet some of the parishioners.  It was only then that, like Jesus, I shared myself with others, as Jesus shared Himself with me in the sacrament.  Is it possible that the only way a sacrament is "consummated" is when I interact with another human being and not stay locked up in my own security or fears?  And is it possible that the Word of God that I had just heard and which I reflected upon earlier in meditative prayer only bears fruit when I share with others and that, without interaction with those with whom I live and work, the "seed" of the Word within me remains dormant.  Does my faith, then, not grow?

What's your experience of how you "consummate" your faith?

Mary, Mother of Sorrows

Mary, I believes weeps with us today as we ponder the recent murder of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old who, in a gated community in Florida, recently who had gone out to purchase skittles and a tea and was killed a short distance from the family he was visiting.  There is an outrage throughout the U.S. and beyond, an outrage as deep as when Casey Anthony was acquitted of the death of her two-year-old-child Kaylee.  Rightly so, in both cases, according to my opinion.  Thousands of innocent people, everyday, throughout the world are victims of violence, as was Mary's Son Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God.  Are we coming to a point in our society and the world of seeing the power of Justice meet injustice, God meeting man in the darkest moments of our existence through those of us willing to stand up to evil in our own lives and in the lives around us.  Are we approaching a point where we will no longer stand by and allow a Trayvon Martin or a Kaylee Anthony's death be in vain, anymore than Jesus' death was in vain.  Is God creating a new earth and a new heaven right before our eyes, raising us up to new heights of confronting the evils of this world, bringing the darkness into the Light for all to see?  Is each of us moving toward a place where we will no longer tolerate injustices without standing up for the Truth, confronting wrongdoing, as Jesus did in His day and in His society?